


Zero Percent Chill

by ChingKittyCat



Series: Zero Continuity [1]
Category: Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, Kirby (Video Games), Kirby - All Media Types
Genre: 4Kids Dub, Cartoon Physics, During Canon, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Hiatus, Light Angst, Mini Arcs, NO Swearing, No Incest, No Romance, Platonic Relationships, Slice of Life, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-05
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2018-11-28 05:29:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 43,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11411214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChingKittyCat/pseuds/ChingKittyCat
Summary: Some brand new intimidating friends settle down near Cappytown.-Sparked from the original Kirby anime's pilot in where a Dark Matter was featured.On hiatus until further notice.[Fic Art]





	1. 0

"I'll pay you."  
"...No."  
"You are stubborn, I'll give you that. How much would you want to willingly work for me, hmm?"  
"...I do not need money."  
"..I see."  
"..."  
"You value destruction, do you not?"  
"...Yes."  
"You would be able to cause destruction to an unfathomable amount of planets if you worked for me."  
"..."  
"Have I peaked your interest now?"  
"...No."  
"You cannot lie to me, I can tell you were interested."  
"...You want me for what I can make. Not what I myself can do."  
"You see through me like a pane of glass, hmm.."  
"..."  
"I'm sure I can get you to reconsider somehow."  
"...No."  
"..."  
"..."  
"Hahaha.. You truly are perplexing.."  
"..."  
"Do you really value them so much— what you make? Why not just mass produce them with me and make everything in the known universe bow before us?"  
"..."  
"Is it a sentimentality of yours? To not have them bought and sold?"  
"..."  
"Whatever the reason may be, I will have you work for me."  
"...No-"  
"Whether you want to or not, it doesn't matter to me. It would be a lot easier if you were willing, but unwillingness can just be crushed out of you."  
"..."  
"I will find you. You'd best start hopping planets when you wake up."


	2. 0

    "I-" A yawn, "get that early bird gets the worm but this is ridiculous, Pinky!"  
    Kirby didn't mind much for Tokkori's complaints, he obviously didn't much mind the bird. The yellow feathery fowl was tired, and that much would be obvious to anyone who actually looked at him. Kirby, of course, had not looked at Tokkori much at all, considering how the bird was resting ontop of the pink blob's head— in which Kirby had placed the yellow fellow there himself.  
    It had been, well, eventful yesterday. Granted, every day tended to be eventful, just yesterday was especially so. Kirby didn't sleep very well for once, and only got maybe around four or five hours of sweet dreams before the sun dripped slowly over the horizon and lit up the sky in fantastic pinks.   
    Kirby was headed into town to get some breakfast, naturally. It's what he usually did. He'd bring Tokkori with him every morning as well so that way the two could get some good eats before they went off and did their own thing. Which usually consisted of Kirby playing with the other kids and Tokkori doing bird things. Unfortunately, it didn't register with Kirby that providers of such breakfasty goods would not be open until at least an hour or so later.  
    "I swear, talkin' to you is like talking to a wall."  
    Tokkori shifted slightly on Kirby's head, trying to get comfortable to get at least some more shuteye. Kirby's walk was steadily paced and generally not all too bumpy, and it continued at such a smooth pace until the two would reach their destination.  
    Kirby knocked on the door to Kawasaki's little restaurant, expecting the chef to answer the door after not but a couple seconds, like he usually does. However, there was not even a reply back to Kirby's knock.   
    Perhaps it wasn't loud enough. He knocked again, more forceful this time. Nope, nothing. Again, maybe? No.. No, nothing.  
    Kirby tilted his head slightly to the side, causing Tokkori to land on the dirty ground in a not so graceful manner. The pink marshmallow turned to Tokkori quickly, picked him up, dusted him off, then put him back. Tokkori gave a 'be more careful' (layered with half-baked insults) in response.  
    "Kawasaki ain't open this early, Pinky. You're too early."  
    Tokkori informed, sounding incredibly dis-enthused.  
    "..Poyo?"  
    Kirby was confused. He knocked on the door again, maybe it would work this time.  
    "He ain't awake yet, you.." Tokkori paused, thinking, "Eh, it's too early to think of good insults."  
    Kirby slumped up against the door, tired, hungry, and very disappointed.   
    "Poyo.."  
    "Yeah, well, maybe you shoulda thought about that before you decided to get up so early, Kirby."  
  
    From underneath Kawasaki's large rimmed roofed restaurant, the still somewhat dark sky could be seen. Only a slight bit, though. So, while Kirby waited, he looked at the sky. To look at the softly lit purple-orange clouds and try to mentally make them into recognizable shapes like a Cappy he knew or an animal.  
    That one looked like the fish that ate Ebrum's engagement ring.. This one looked like a sheep..  
    This went on and on, lazily as Kirby's stomach rumbled loudly. It was hard to ignore, but unless he wanted to start eating the wood off the building, he'd have to sit there and look at the clouds. So, that he did.  
    That one looked like Chilly. Another one like a tiny, friendly robot dog. Then, there's this perfect circular pure black one. Kirby couldn't really attach this perfect cloud to anyone he knew, so he just marveled at the perfect circle instead.   
    "Huh, that's kinda weird.."  
    Tokkori was looking at the cloud too, roused from the slight shuteye. Yes, it was awfully strange. It was small, or maybe it was just far away, but Kirby appreciated it all the same. Then, he went back to look at the other clouds. They deserved just as much attention.  
    "Poyo.. Poyo, poyo.."  
    Kirby vocalized, waving around his stubby arm, pointing to the shapes in the sky.  
    "Woah, hey, where'd it go?!"  
    Tokkori practically shouted the question. Kirby was confused at first. But then, he looked through the sky to see what could possibly be missing.  
    The perfect circle cloud was gone. Not a single trace of it even being in the sky was left by the wind that surely had scattered the vapor into another shape. It's like it never even was up there in the first place. It was perplexing, of course. Had something just snatched it out of the sky while he was busy looking at the other ones?  
    "You saw that circle in the sky, didn't ya Pinks? It's not just me?"  
    Kirby simply nodded in response. Tokkori didn't need anything else.  
    "That's freaky. I was lookin' at it too! Then, poof, gone! Must be some sorta weird creature, no doubt about it."  
    Tokkori stood up and began to stretch out his wings and legs ontop of Kirby's pillowy head. Kirby thought about it through his baby-logic. Maybe the moon just wanted to say 'have a good morning' before it went behind the hillsides? That could be the case. Yeah, that was probably just it.  
    "Eh, we both need some food. No use worrying about some weird circle in the sky. 'Least not until later today when it turns out to be some harebrained Dedede scheme."  
    Kirbys' stomach rumbled in agreement. If only Kawasaki would just hurry up and wake up already.

 

* * *

  
    Tokkori pat his stomach with his wing, looking down at the plate he had just finished. Kawasaki's was definitely not the best, but where else was Kirby supposed to take him for breakfast? The convenience store? Yeah, real classy.   
    Kirby had finished his plate long before Tokkori did, and he was shifting restlessly in his chair, obviously itching to go outside and do something. That or to eat more. It was probably the ladder. Tokkori's plate was still covered in general food grime, which Tokkori was much too lazy to actually clean off of the plate. So, he shoved the plate (not that it went very far) with his little foot towards Kirby's direction.  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby poyoed, standing up, going around the table to where Tokkori was sitting, and snatching the plate. Within not but a couple seconds of pushing the plate into his face, the plate was spotless. Tokkori's disgust was basically nonexistent at this point, since Kirby always did this.  
    The chef waddled up to them nonchalantly.  
    "Yer gettin better at breakfast foods, I'll give you that much, Kawasaki."  
    Kawasaki carefully took the plates and glasses, placing the glasses ontop of the plates like any good waiter would.  
    "Oh, thank you, Tempori!"  
    "Tokkori! Get it right you lard blob!"  
    "Sorry, I guess I have a bit on my mind."  
    "Oh, that's a new one for you."  
    "Well, I was thinking about when Kirby fought Popon and how he threw that fryingpan really high into the sky. I was kinda wondering if I could do that too."  
    "Kawasaki-"  
    "I mean, if Kirby's a little kid and I'm an adult I bet I could probably do it too!"  
    There was an audible sigh from Tokkori at that. He didn't know exactly how to explain to Kawasaki that it didn't work like that, as the bird himself didn't know all too much about Kirby. Other than the fact that he liked to eat and could transform into different 'copy abilities' based on very, very specific things that he ate (that sometimes didn't make much sense), Kirby was shrouded in mystery.  
    "I don't know exactly how to 'splain it to ya, but it ain't work like that-"  
    "Kirby's copy abilities are paralleled only by masters of the craft, even without beforehand training."  
    A familiar Spanish sting. Meta Knight in all his angsty blue glory had entered the establishment, his cape wrapped around his body as per the usual. Tokkori had no strong feelings towards the knight, but he did feel like the short masked knight was just too lazy to battle all these monsters himself. As far as Tokkori had heard, he had only actually fought any of Kirby's enemies once, and that was yesterday. It had left him with a concussion due to a particularly head injury whilst he was passed out from something or other.  
    "Are ya servin' breakfast, Kawasaki?"  
    Sword and Blade were accompanying Meta Knight, for-though it was a bit strange to see them do so. The two of them were probably just worried about Meta Knight, which was cute in a make you gag sorta way.  
    "Usually Kirby and his little bird friend are the only ones I serve during breakfast time but-"  
    Meta Knight was already headed towards a table. Why he didn't want to get some actually good castle grub was beyond Tokkori. Anything was better than Kawasaki's food, even if the orange was improving on his early morning meals.  
    "You'll have to excuse Sir Meta Knight, he's a bit.."  
    "Well, he's been a bit rash because of his conk to the noggin, eh?"  
    "He got hurt?"  
    Apparently Kawasaki was out of the loop. How unsurprising.  
    "Yesterday, Wolfwrath made some serious damage on Dedede's castle. Debris was crumbling from the ceiling and all that. While Meta Knight was out cold from Wolfwrath's fang, some of it crumbled onto his head before we could move him out of the way."  
    Tokkori was getting bored of this. So, he hopped on over to Kirby, poked the pink guy with his beak to get attention.  
    "Hey, let's get movin! Don't want to loiter!"  
    Don't want to pay the bill either. So, Tokkori took flight directly out of the building, Kirby following cheerfully behind. Once they were out on the street and a decent ways away, Tokkori turned to Kirby, then stopped. Kirby had stopped with him, giving an inquisitive look.  
    "Alright, I'm gonna go off and do my thing, you go off and play with your friends or go talk to trees or whatever it is you do all day."  
    "Poyo!"  
    Before Tokkori even turned around to fly off, Kirby was waving goodbye. Maybe he gave the pink baby too much slack sometimes. 

 

* * *

  
  
    The sun shone down brightly on the kids, as it usually did. It was midsummer, so it was still hot outside. The green grass moved softly with the wind, and there was a slight rustle of leaves from the tree Tiff sat under. Standing up around her were some of the village children, her brother, and Kirby. With the baking heat, Tiff internally missed the time that Dedede made it snow with that Ice Dragon. No use reminiscing over such things. The kids needed something to do, preferably in the shade.  
    "We haven't seen Whispy in a while, maybe we should go visit him."  
    Tiff thought this was an excellent idea, of course. Hanging out with Whispy was bound to be some level of fun. Plus, free delicious apples straight off the branch. It had food, fun, and activities all wrapped up in one place.  
    "Maybe tomorrow, I don't really feel very up to it today. I'm still really tired from running around yesterday.."  
    Her brother, Tuff, apparently was having none of her good idea. Oh well, it could wait until tomorrow. It's not like anything disastrous would happen to Whispy if they didn't.  
    "Well then what do you suggest we do, Tuff?"  
    The sentence came out a bit more sassy than she had expected it to. Whoops.  
    "I dunno, maybe go bother the Chief or some other adult in town."  
    "Tuff, adults are very busy and have jobs to do! We can't just go bother them for no reason other than to just bother them!"  
    "Sis, you're so boring sometimes. I don't even know why you hang out with us, all you do is just read your book while we play."  
    "Yeah, well, when you get home all you do is watch Dedede's dumb TV show if it's on! At least books don't rot my brain like watching TV does!"  
    There was a loud huff from Tuff after she said that, and his anger was apparent. His hands had curled into fists and he had grit his teeth ever so slightly. Oh dear. How disastrous.  
    "Ugh!" Just the response she'd expect from her brother, "Y'know what, have fun with your dumb book, Tiff! Us and Kirby are gonna go have actual fun! C'mon you guys, lets go!"  
  
  
  
    His sister was just so obnoxious sometimes! He couldn't believe he was related to such a nerdy snob! Plus, the way she left her jaw hanging wide open for something to fly right into it bothered him too. Her stupid ponytail, the way she wagged her finger condescendingly! Ugh! Now he was just getting mad just thinking about the things she does in general! And how dare she think TV rots your brain! It's like she was a technophobe or something!  
    "Poyo..?"  
    Kirby sensed his anger, poking at his fist lightly with his stub arm. He gave a slight sigh, uncurling his fist. Kirby, despite only being able to say like, one word, was usually the voice of reason in their group.  
    "Yeah, sorry Kirby, Tiff just makes me so mad sometimes. Especially with her hate for TV! Like, how could you hate TV!? But we should go off and start playing, right? So, what do you guys wanna play?"  
    Tuff looked at his friends. Between the five of them they could play a lot of different sorta games that they normally couldn't."  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    "Catch?"  
    "No, how about Manhunt!"  
    "We don't have enough people for Manhunt."  
    "Red light Green light?"  
    "Hmm.."  
    Red light Green light was fun.. Yeah, maybe they could play that.  
    "How about we do like, a princess and a dragon game? Like, where someone's the dragon and someone else is the princess? The other players could be knights trying to save the princess!"  
    The girl Cappy suggested this one, obviously. It did sound like a fun thing to do, though.  
    "That sounds fun. Who's going to be the princess?"  
    A harsh silence fell over the group. Tension weighed heavy on the summer breeze as they looked at eachother anxiously.  
    ...  
    ...  
    ...  
    "NOT IT!"  
    The Cappies and Tuff called out at the same time.  
    "Alright, Kirby's gotta be the princess! Who's going to be the dragon, then?"  
    Tuff desired to be one of the knights, so that way he could fight a glorious battle against whoever the dragon was going to be.  
    "I call it!"  
    One of the other boy Cappies quickly shouted, enthused by the idea of being a dragon by the smile on his face.  
    "Alright, so, how do we play?"  
    Tuff wondered, looking back at the girl Cappy who had suggested it in the first place.   
    "I didn't really think out any actual rules to the game.. But I just figure what we should do is all pretend we're our roles and then just act it all out! Like a game of pretend! We can use these trees over here," she motioned to the scarce few trees that littered their field-esque play area, "and the forest over there," a motion towards the border of the nearby forest, "as like, environmental props and stuff! Like, they could be rocks, or the tower that the princess is held in!"  
    She sounded excited about this scenario as she explained how it would work out.  
    "Alright. So, Kirby, go get up in that tree over there!"  
    Tuff commanded, pointing over to one of the lone trees. Kirby nodded, dashing over to the tree. He inhaled a large breath of air, expanding his circular body before flapping his way into one of the branches. The 'dragon' went over to the tree too, to guard Kirby from the knights.  
  
    And thus, Tuff was thrust into a world of bubbling lava and hot stone. Of a volcano-esque landscape that one wrong move would have you thrust into a crevice, which at the bottom held magma that would seal your doom. He wore a layer of protective, shiny armor that didn't cook him despite the warm temperatures of the place around him. By his side stood two of his companions, one wielding an axe and another a mace.  
    Ahead stood their destination, the tower. Inside was the kingdom's princess, who was held dear by many a folk. Since her disappearance, people have panicked and grown chaotic. Her absence was caused by none other than the dragon that curled like a serpent around the cylindrical building. It's eyes were of piercing red, it's scales of a dazzling green that reflected the harsh light of the lava below that acted like a partial moat between the tower and the outside world. The dragon's claws were driven deep into the tower's strong stone, as to keep it held up and vicious looking.  
    Tuff looked back at his companions, then towards the dragon once more. Behind the tower, there was a mountain. It reached so high above the tower that one could jump off one portion of it onto the roof of the building. The rocky mountain was a nightmarish black, surely made of some sort of lava rock. It would be of sharp edges, but it shouldn't be a problem.  
    He gave a simple nod, and the three of them were off. Running past large and sudden spouts of lava that came up like geysers, jumping over small pools that would've swallowed up anyone less athletic than he and his compatriots, and hiding behind rocks when the dragon decided they had gotten too close for its liking had spewed a hot stream of blue flames at the trio.  
    Now they had approached the mountain, it was time to ascend. The dragon unlatched itself from its perch, accompanied by a few chunks of rock that it took off the tower in its wake. A loud, bellowing roar that could make a fool's legs give out echoed throughout the volcanic plains as it climbed onto the top of the mountain. Tuff and his friends were out in the open. No rocks this time.  
    Thankfully, his axeweilding friend was also a magic hobbyist. He had been for maybe a couple years now, he was quite good. So, when the dragon's searing breath came down the mountain, he had waved his hands in a strange motion to cast a large protective shield. The fire blasted against it with a force Tuff was sure to be incredible, as they continued forwards.  
    The dragon's growls and hisses shook the mountain to its core, its claws clicking against the black rocks as it decided to meet them downwards on the mountain. It continued its assault, but it was no match for the three. Granted, it seemed its only option for a ranged attack was to breath fire. There was no telling what it could do when they actually got face to face with it.  
    Tuff thankfully did not have to deal with such a battle.  
    "Now."  
    Just like that, he vanished in thin air. Then, he reappeared inside of the surprisingly cold (in comparison) indoors of the tower. Teleportation spells sure were handy in times like these. He could tell he was at the top of the tower, as he could hear the screeching of the dragon as it attacked from here. That and the stairs only went down. That too.  
    In front of him stood the princess, incased in a levitating, ominously glowing glass crystal. It was magic, so she was still alive inside of it. The dragon had placed a seal on her to keep her in there. Nothing that couldn't be undone once he and the others brought her home, of course.  
    ..He hoped, at least.  
    He put his hands slowly onto the crystal, as if testing if it was boobytrapped or not. Nope. Nothing happened. It was cool to the touch and smooth underneath his armored glove. With no more time lose, he wrapped his arms around the crystal and attempted to move it. It was an easy feat. Once he moved it, however, the glowing stopped. Maybe it was for the best.  
    Then, he heard an explosion. And screams. The dragon had screamed, same with his friends. Less so a scream of agony, but a short scream of astonishment.  
  
    A real explosion. It had snapped him out of his state of imagination as he held Kirby in an awkward hug. He looked towards Cappy Town.  
    There was smoke. Black, it swirled high into the sky in thick clouds.


	3. Zero Occupancy! Pt. 2

    The explosion had happened in a T shaped intersection. The mayor had been crossing from the vertical part of the T if one were to look at it from above.   
    The scene was surrounded by Cappies. The entire town had come to investigate, just like Tuff and his friends. Not that anyone could blame them, explosions were worrying things.  
    "M-My poor car.."  
    The mayor was devastated. His precious automobile was nothing but seared metal and flames now. Not even the best mechanic in town could fix this wreck of scrap. Not a chance.  
    "Woah," Tuff and his friends had came running after they heard the explosion, worried about a monster, "what happened, Mr. Mayor?"  
    It's not like some random engine failure could cause this much damage. No way, no how. It must have been Dedede on that weird tank car of his— in which Tuff pined so to have. Why would he want to blow up the mayor's car, though? A fit of roadrage?  
    The mayor looked at Tuff and his four pals.  
    "I crashed into some monster and it blew up my car while I was inside! I was flung into the sky by the explosion but.."   
    He turned back to the car, boohoo-ing over his car. Well, at least he seemed fine (somehow).   
    "A monster, huh? How totally surprising."  
    Oh great, it's Tiff. Tuff resisted the urge to turn around and glower at her through his yellow bangs. Apparently he wasn't over what she had said earlier in the day, which came as a shock to him. She was being the usual sassy brat she is, of course.  
    "Glad to see you're alright though, Mayor. Did you see which way it went?"  
    Ugh.  
    "I-It went down the street.."  
    The mayor pointed down towards the right side of the intersection, towards the big roundabout that had the Chief's police station, amongst other buildings.  
    "Alright, let's go check it out-"  
    "Leave the monster fighting to us, Tiff!"  
    Tuff interrupted, crossing his arms. His friends noticed, doing the same. Kirby didn't realize what was going on for a second, but he did the same after a second or so. There was a loud sigh from Tiff, as if she expected something else from them.  
    "I'm going to leave it to Kirby, since none of us can actually fight, Tuff. As soon as we find it, we need to make sure we're out of the way. This thing apparently has the ability to do that," Tiff pointed to the wreck, "so who knows what it could do to us or any other residents of Cappytown!"  
    Tiff looked around at the other Cappys standing around the wreck. She cleared her throat before she started.  
    "We need everyone to evacuate! At least to on the outskirts of town, we don't know how bad the damage could be if we all stayed here!"  
    An evacuation plan? Well, Tuff knew where he was going. He was staying here to help Kirby fight! He couldn't just leave Kirby by himself to fight this monster, that just feels wrong!  
    Chief Bookem, who stood nearby, seemed to like this plan.  
    "Good idea, Tiff. I'll go get over the town's emergency speakers to make sure that everyone knows about the evacuation."  
    The Chief then booked it down the road towards his office, where he could make such an announcement. For now, however, Tiff was busy getting everyone to get moving. She was yelling and generally trying to get everyone out of town before something bad happened. Tuff's friends followed the instructions and joined the mass.  
    "Poyo.."  
    Kirby attempted to follow the hoard of people to safety, but Tuff quickly grabbed Kirby's 'hand'.  
    "No, we gotta go find the monster, Kirby!"  
    He whispered, as to not have Tiff hear him. Kirby looked at him blankly for a moment before nodding. Nodding back, Tuff and Kirby headed down the road that the monster supposedly went down as well. Tiff didn't seem to notice, because he didn't hear her shouts telling him to 'get back here'.  
    Upon reaching the roundabout, the emergency speakers crackled to life with the sound of Bookem's voice. He said the usual stuff about evacuating, blah blah blah, who cares, there's a monster to find! Tuff was looking up and down the circular plaza for any sign of a monster. He figured he'll just recognize a monster when he sees it.   
    Maybe it went further down the road? Yeah, that seems likely. Tuff dashed further down the roadway, Kirby close behind. Kirby didn't know precisely what was going on, but he followed anyways.   
    The two kept pace fairly well as they dashed down this and that road, looking for a sign of anything. By the time Tuff and Kirby were tired from all the running, something down the street caught Tuff's eye.  
    "That's it!"  
    He croaked, out of breath. Kirby looked down the street, seeing it as well. Yes, that was most definitely the monster.   
    It was small from a distance, but its height was apparent from here. That thing was at least double Kirby's height. Maybe around the same size of Dedede, for a better example. It probably didn't help that the thing was of an edgy palette as well.  
    It was a levitating black sphere, with additional orange spheres around one side of itself. From here, Tuff couldn't tell if there was anything else on the monster from this particular distance. What he could tell, however, was that the monster was continuing its journey down one of the roads that was not the one that Kirby or Tuff were on. With a groan, Tuff gave chase.  
    They weren't fast in the slightest, no. However, this thing would take frequent stops at intersections. It would look both ways before picking a street it hasn't previously gone down. It was a goosechase, yes. But as it slowed to a stop once more infront of Tuff and Kirby, Tuff picked up Kirby and promptly threw him like a baseball at the monster's behind.  
    It was startled. In it's sudden confusion, it shot out beams of black lightning from it's 'face'. Such lightning bolts went in different directions. Some went directly up into the sky. Others went into the ground. One, however, found itself at home in a nearby electrical box. The box promptly responded by blowing up, which was so loud that it made Tuff cover his ears almost instantly.   
    The monster turned around.  
    Oh, well, that's not intimidating at all.  
    The monster had one, large red eye which shot shivers down Tuff's spine, as much as he'd hate to admit that.  The eye was opened wide in such a way that would indicate fury.   
    "Kirby! HEEEEEEELLLP!"  
    Like a damsel in distress, Tuff cried out. Kirby responded like the knight in shining armor that he was. He did the only thing he really could in this situation— suck. Not suck as in like, do badly, but as in actually suck.  
    A vortex of air surrounded Tuff and the monster, whizzing loudly and forcefully pulling Tuff towards Kirby. Tuff gripped onto the ground, fingernails digging into the gravel and dirt that made up the road. The monster seemed unfazed for a second, maybe even unamused by the effort that Kirby made. Then, it's singular eye narrowed and the orange circles on it's 'back' bristled and popped off. A few of them managed to escape the whirlwind, but most of them were sucked up by Kirby. The ones that weren't shot towards him like homing rockets.  
    Kirby had stopped sucking as soon as his mouth was full.  
    "Spit em back at it, Kirby!"  
    Tuff commanded, and Kirby obliged. Orange pellets the size of Kirby's body shot out of the pink puffball's mouth, destroying the opposing homing pellets and then going straight for the monster. Upon impact, the monster recoiled and shut its eye, then promptly began to scream.  
    Really, really loudly.  
    It seemed to go on for an eternity, this hellish screeching. How could it even scream if it didn't have a mouth? Granted, Waddle Dees didn't have a mouth either, but they still managed to eat food. Okay, that's unimportant, there's a screaming cyclops circle and it won't stop screaming. Did it really hurt that badly? Tuff would feel bad if his ears weren't pounding from pain.  
    When it stopped screaming, a nice, long silence filled its place. It was horribly, horribly quiet. With the town evacuated, Tuff hadn't noticed until now how quiet it was. His running had provided noise but now.. It was just silent. It creeped him out.  
    "..Poyo.."  
    He heard Kirby poyo. Kirby's ears probably hurt too from that. A noise broke the silence. Running. The sound of metal. Within not but a couple seconds, some very welcomed faces arrived.  
    "Dark Matter."  
    A spanish sting. Meta Knight had arrived. From his neutral tone, not much could be deciphered. However, looking back at the three knights, Tuff could tell that Sword and Blade were maybe a bit tense from their body language. That wasn't a good sign.  
    "..."  
    Dark Matter, as it was named, looked blankly at the knights, as if waiting for them to do something. Or for something happen in general. It was a bit awkward, actually. In this silence, Sword rushed up to Tuff and grabbed him, dragging him away from the monster.  
    "Whaddya doin' here, kid..?!"  
    Sword questioned, quietly. The atmosphere was a bit tense, as the stare-down continued.  
    "I couldn't just leave Kirby by himself!"  
    Tuff answered, loudly.  
    "All four of you are in danger."  
    Meta Knight didn't even bother to look at Tuff or the other Knights when he said that. It's like if he broke eyecontact with Dark Matter, even for a second, something bad would happen.  
    "Dark Matter is not a foe to be trifled with-"  
    Meta Knight suddenly trailed off into silence. The wind around them brushed gently and unnaturally. The Dark Matter didn't move, but something about it emanated in such a way that said 'I just got what I wanted'.  
    Two shadows flew over head, then flew down. Two more Dark Matters joined this one. Oh boy, now this sure was a pickle, wasn't it?  
    Meta Knight flung his cape open in a somewhat dramatic fashion at this, reaching for his sword.  
    ...  
    Reaching for his sword.  
    Meta Knight was frozen. Tuff, getting a bit scared now, wondered why he hadn't brought his sword out. As shown from yesterday, that thing was powerful when he or Kirby wielded it, so why wasn't it being drawn?  
    Strange noises of mockery erupted from the two Dark Matters who had recently joined.  
    Did. Did Meta Knight forget his sword?  
    "Get Kirby and Tuff out of here. I must get back to the castle."  
    He forgot his sword. Tuff would've facepalmed if he weren't in a life-threatening situation right now. Well, now Sword had lifted Tuff up. Tuff could see that Blade had picked up Kirby like a basketball. The two of them ran, and close behind, dashed Meta Knight. The sounds of mockery grew louder as the Dark Matters gave chase.  
    Electricity crackled at the retreating party's feet, and as the Dark Matters easily caught up..  
    "Blade! Toss me your sword!"  
    That was a pretty quick change of Meta Knight's mind.  
    The command was given. Blade turned whilst running, unsheathed his sword, and tossed it back towards Meta Knight. It was caught with ease, and Meta Knight stopped right there. The Dark Matters stopped with him. Then, the two knights turned a corner and Meta Knight, as well as the three Dark Matters, were out of Tuff's action-thirsty view.  
    "Change o' plans, you go to the castle, gimme Kirby!"  
    Blade chucked Kirby, and Sword caught him perfectly. Blade headed off in a different direction after that quick exchange, and Sword headed towards the evacuation area.

 

* * *

  
    "There's three of us,"  
    "and one of you."  
    Dark Matters.. Of course. He never had the  _absolute fortune_  to see more than one in one place. Even then, he had Galaxia with him. Taking on three of them with just a regular sword is nothing short of absolute insanity. He could be possessed, or worse.  
    "Where's that legendary sword of yours, huh?!"  
    One of them chuckled as it asked, spewing electricity at Meta Knight's feet, making him dodge backwards from the circles. Meta Knight assessed his surroundings, looking for environmental advantages he could use. Sticking to the roofs would minimize the amount of damage done to Cappytown. Some of the roofs were metal, so it could be helpful in drawing electricity away from himself, should it ever come directly in his direction.  
    To the roofs it was. Meta Knight dashed to the side, quickly ascending a building as the Dark Matters hovered at slightly above his new elevation. Everyone would be able to see the three from here. More importantly, Sword and Blade, should they come back, could easily find Meta Knight and toss him back his sword.  
    Without another word, Meta Knight dashed. He ran like his own free will depended on it. The Dark Matters followed closely behind.

 

* * *

  
    Tuff could tell Kirby was restless, watching the action from the edges of Cappytown. Maybe he was worried about Meta Knight. Not that he blamed Kirby for it, Meta Knight fighting all three of those monsters at once seemed daunting, to say the very least. The additional and occasional explosion didn't help either. Nor the visual of Meta Knight getting electrocuted. Though very distant, it was a clear image.  
    Meta Knight had gotten his sword back, that much was obvious from the fact that he was no longer running (as much) from rooftop to rooftop with three black spheres behind him. Who knows were Sword and Blade went. They probably went to help out Meta Knight and ended up getting electrocuted too. With that metal armor, it would've knocked the two out pretty instantly. But that's just a theory. Maybe they're off playing cards somewhere.  
    So, as Tuff watched the action, he looked back down to see Kirby..  
    Or, well, to see the place that Kirby previously was.  
    "Kirby? Kirby?"  
    He called out, looking at all the other citizens. Oh boy, don't tell him that Kirby went off to go help Meta Knight!  
  
  
    Kirby went off to go help Meta Knight. Floating to atop one of the buildings, he could see the Dark Matters and the masked knight dueling it out in epic proportions. Such epic proportions mostly consisting of Meta Knight getting electrocuted because he was slightly in over his head. Kirby couldn't stand to see one of his friends in pain like this.   
    Kirby went across rooftops to meet Meta Knight, floating where gaps were too big to jump across.   
    "Aw, this is precious."  
    One of the Dark Matters sneered as Kirby now stood infront of Meta Knight. He was standing, but his limbs were spasming and twitching from the electricity flowing through them.  
    "Kirby," Meta Knight croaked, holding out the sword he had borrowed from Blade,  "suck this up."  
    "Oh boy, two against three, your odds sure are going to get better with pipsqueak on your side here."  
    The sarcastic tone fell upon Kirby's ignoring ears as he quickly sucked up the sword. Flipping into the air, letting the transformation sequence play, he had transformed into sword Kirby, complete with floppy green elf hat.  
    "Aw, he's cute.. Little green hat.."  
    There was genuine sincerity in one of the Dark Matter's voice right there. Meta Knight found it strange, but Kirby sure didn't mind a compliment before he got into some heated battle. The other two Dark Matters looked at the one who had just spoke before they got back into the whole 'firing lightning because it's really effective' thing.  
    Kirby dodged out of the way, same for Meta Knight. With so many bolts of lightning, constant dodging is a must in order to not get hit. Which would be hard when there's sometimes sixteen bolts being fired in your general direction. Not to mention, there was the occasional orange ball assault, in where homing balls headed straight for either Meta Knight or Kirby.  
    Neither of these attacks could be deflected back at the Dark Matter. Kirby had tried, failed, and suffered painful consequence for even attempting to do so. Meanwhile, Meta Knight was reaping the rewards of the Dark Matter having more than one target to focus on. It was much easier to attack when they were distracted.  
    Perhaps it took two or so minutes before one of the Dark Matters took a plunge to the ground by Meta Knight's sword. It wasn't totally defeated, maybe just a bit injured.  
    "O-Ow.."  
    It whined, almost pitifully. Kirby hoped it stayed down, so that way it didn't have to be hurt anymore.  
    "Dark Matter, are you okay?!"  
    The other Dark Matters became concerned, rushing over to help their fallen friend. It was almost touching, if they weren't monsters sent to destroy Kirby. This time was incredibly opportune for both Meta Knight and Kirby. The two exchanged glances before leaping downwards towards the near grounded two Dark Matter. Swords gleaming, air wooshing.  
    One of the Dark Matters was stabbed by this attack, whilst the other was able to dodge at the last second. Meta Knight's sword dug deep into the black circle's top, and a horrid cry of pain was emitted before it joined its friend on the ground. The last Dark Matter looked down at the two of its grounded compatriots.   
    "..."  
    It took its side on the opposite end of the 'battlefield' from Meta Knight and Kirby. Stares of daggers were exchanged before the last Dark Matter began its assault of electricity and orange orbs. At first, the battle seemed to be going much more towards the Dark Matter's favor, what with Kirby being hit by the orange orbs maybe five or six times.  
    However, the tides of battle were quickly changed when Meta Knight tossed his sword like a throwing dagger straight for the Dark Matter's big, red eye. It had managed to make it far enough away from the thrown blade so that its eye wasn't injured. However, it still ended up stabbed regardless.  
    It still floated, still having some fight left in it. Its eye widened ever so slightly, pupil looking at the new wound for maybe a second or so, before it began to scream.   
    Just like the lone Dark Matter had done, it screamed. Loud, horribly. Meta Knight appeared unaffected by the eardrum bursting scream, however. He meandered right up to the Dark Matter, then propelled himself upwards. He grabbed his sword, and withdrew it from the Dark Matter. The scream had wavered, then died out as the Dark Matter flopped eye-first onto the ground.  
    ...  
    Then it was quiet.  
    Eerily quiet.  
    Kirby looked at Meta Knight with a slight hint of shock at what he had just did.  
    "Poyo?"  
    Kirby poyoed, sounding a bit sympathetic. Meta Knight began coughing like one would after running a race without water in hand. A really, really bad hacking cough. He held onto his mask, most likely to make it so it wouldn't fall off. Kirby rushed over, patting Meta Knight on the back as he sheathed his magical sword. Kirby wanted him to feel a bit better, but also to show that Meta Knight did a really good job, so this gesture seemed to work out just fine.  
    ...  
    Meta Knight straightened up, still coughing slightly. Kirby was happy to see he was okay. He kept patting Meta Knight's back, though.  
    The area around grew a bit dark. It was probably just a cloud.  
    "Poyo, poyo.."  
    Kirby poyoed, concerned. Meta Knight had been injured yesterday, and going back into battle so soon was definitely not good for his health. Doing battle in general was not very good for anyone's health, now that Kirby thought about it.  
    The darkness lifted from the two.  
    Kirby felt Meta Knight tense ever so slightly underneath his stub-arm. Kirby looked at Meta Knight's face. It was unreadable, as per usual, but looking straight down the street, past the fallen Dark Matters.  
  
    "..."  
    A large, white, and silently gazing orb levitated.


	4. Zero Occupancy! Pt. 3

It was perhaps around five Dededes high and five Dededes around in diameter. It was very, very large. It had one, completely red eye. There was no white in this eye. It was all red and one black pupil.  
    It looked down at the Dark Matters, blinked, slowly.  
    Then, it looked back up. Its gaze was fixed on the two sword wielding warriors that stood before it.  
    "..."  
    "..."  
    Its eye showed nothing but absolute bloodlust.   
    Kirby turned his head back to Meta Knight, a little bit frightened for the knight's sake. He was probably all too tired by now to fight much more, and if he did, he'd probably risk injuring himself further. Not that Meta Knight seemed to care about such an idea, he had already unsheathed his trusted blade once more.  
    Around the white orb's eye, the white 'flesh' split, revealing a red underneath. From this red sprung blood-cell like disks, which hurled at great speeds towards the two. Kirby wasn't going to stick around to try and deflect these. So, he grabbed Meta Knight's hand, and forced a dodge. He let go quickly afterwards, then ran straight to the big white fellow.  
    Brandishing the cold steel, Kirby jumped into the air as soon as he was close, slashing downwards across the being. Not only hitting the eye, but hitting some of the body as well. Kirby landed on his feet. He expected to hear some kind of noise from the creature. An indicator of any sort of pain, but none came. It didn't even move backwards.   
    Did sword attacks not work? Was this sword inparticular not strong enough? Whatever the answer, Kirby was going to keep at this until something happened.   
    He jumped, slashing and cutting. He stabbed and cut. He had cleared his head and even summoned a sword beam, but not even that had fazed it. Kirby fought almost relentlessly, but nothing was happening. Like, at all.  
    "Poyo.."  
    Kirby fell back onto his nonexistent butt, his sword dropping onto the ground below his stub hand. He was tired, but not totally exhausted.  
    "..."  
    The cyclops circle looked down at him. It's eye beaming a undecipherable emotion down at the little puffball. Just as it looked down, Meta Knight had came flying out of sidelines, finally. His attacks in comparison had managed to do something to the thing. That something being pushing it back ever so slightly, but other than that, it was as effective as Kirby's assault.   
    Meta Knight was not so lucky to have an attack that was left with no attacks back from the white orb, as its flesh had split once more to fling more disks at the knight. He managed to get smacked up, but he had some fight left in him, even still.  
    Kirby stood back up, eager to join his friend in futile battle. He dashed to Meta Knight's side, slashing at the enemy alongside the knight. Did this do nothing to it? Absolutely. Did Kirby feel a bit useless whilst doing this? Absolutely not.  
    However, all it took was one more disk to send Meta Knight out of the jump-gained air and smack harshly onto the road. Really, really harshly. That didn't seem very good.  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby stopped his attacking and went over to defend his friend from whatever this thing had in store next. Just as he did so, the thing responded. Red electricity formed and gathered infront of the creature's eye, like it was charging a large attack. The sound of electricity grew louder as the seconds went by. Kirby shook a bit before going and shaking Meta Knight. Kirby wanted to make sure he was fine. Meta Knight gave an exhausted wheeze, one which Kirby barely could hear over the electric crackles.  
    Kirby looked at the creature, then back at Meta Knight. Discarding his sword ability with a pop and a couple of stars suddenly spawning from thin air, Kirby turned back to the thing and began trying to suck in whatever it was charging. Since that's not how electricity works, Kirby's attempt was all but useless. The white orb didn't even move slightly from it's levitating position from the tornado of Kirby's suck. Kirby stopped.  
    Kirby positioned himself between the thing and Meta Knight. If the thing were to fire whatever it was charging, Kirby's back would absorb the damage and leave the knight unharmed (probably). Kirby hugged his friend, getting as much as himself over Meta Knight as possible.  
    Then, he waited.  
    He felt the air liven with static around him, and the electricity grow deafening. There sure were a lot of loud things today.  
    Kirby tensed up, bracing or the attack.  
    ...  
    ...  
    ...  
    Nothing came. The electricity's volume stayed in the same place, so Kirby thought the attack must've finished charging. Yet, nothing smacked into his back, and nothing electrocuted him. Nothing.  
    Kirby waited more.  
    And more.  
    But nothing happened.  
    Well, that's not true. Something did happen. It was unrelated, but Kirby saw one of the Dark Matters get back up. It floated like it was a bit dazed and confused. But it just sorta.. Floated there, looking at the white orb and its charged electric attack.  
    "..Poyo?"  
    Kirby turned his head slightly to try and look at the white orb. Was it going to do anything? This was kinda awkward. Kirby, being the best at logical thinking, unhugged himself from Meta Knight. The thought of the white orb waiting for Kirby to unlatch himself never even crossed his mind.  
    Kirby approached the orb, now sort of in a more curious than aggressive fashion.  
    "..."  
    It looked down at Kirby as he moved closer and closer. Soon, Kirby was so close that nothing but the charged ball of electricity stopped him from poking the creature right in the eye. The electricity was loud, yes, but it was manageable.   
    The thing moved backwards ever so slightly, as to keep Kirby from touching it.  
    "Poyo?"  
    Kirby moved forwards. It moved back.  
    ...  
    "I think we came at a bad time, sire."  
    A distant voice, barely heard over the electricity, stated loudly. Since Kirby could see under the white orb, he saw the familiar sight of a certain armored car. The thing seemed to notice the voice too. So, it quickly turned to see what was going on. Then, just like that, it fired its charged electricity in a concentrated beam of energy.  
    Girlish screams were heard right before an explosion. Then, the sound of two bodies hitting dirt.  
    "MY CAR!"  
    "You can just get a new one sire, that one was bad on the brakes anyways."  
    "JUST WHAT IS GOIN' ON HERE!?"  
    Kirby didn't bother to listen any further than that, as the two voices began to talk over eachother in yells. Nothing Kirby wanted to listen to anyways. The white thing turned back to Kirby, looking down at him once more.  
    "..."  
    "..Poyo, poyo.."  
    "..."  
    A thrilling and enlightening conversation. The white orb looked past the pink orb. Kirby looked back, seeing that the Dark Matter who had gotten up had disappeared. That, and Meta Knight was slowly getting onto his feet.  
    Kirby was delighted.  
    "Poyo! Poyo!"  
    He dashed back over to Meta Knight, poyoing happily as he pat Meta Knight. Kirby didn't even notice the foreboding aura or the change of eyecolor from yellow to purple. Nor the dark, flickering pseudo-flames around the knight. Meta Knight reached for his sword.  
    "...Out."  
    The white orb spoke. Its voice.. Well, it was something expected out of an ominously floating eyeball, to say the very least.  
    "Aw, really?"  
    Meta Knight replied. This greatly confused Kirby, making him poyo ever so slightly.   
    "..."  
    "Alright.."  
    Just then, the missing Dark Matter liquefied out of Meta Knight's body, leaving him unconscious in its wake. The flames and aura disappeared from him as well, leaving just a bruised and battered blue masked blob. Fate has not been smiling at Meta Knight these past two days, has it?  
    "..."  
    "Poyo, poyo.."  
    Kirby shook Meta Knight slightly. No, yeah, he was unconscious. Definitely. Okay, well. Kirby went back up to the white orb. Again. It was following his movements with its eye as he walked up. So, Kirby poked it. Not the eye, of course. Just the area around it.  
    "..Boss?"  
    The white orb snapped its vision to look up for a second, then it looked back down at Kirby. It had a weird look in its eye. Not weird in a way that Kirby should be concerned, just a generally strange kind of look.  
    "..."  
    "Poyo?"  
    "..."  
    Poke, poke. This thing seemed docile enough, and not outwardly aggressive.. Maybe it had been provoked by Kirby and Meta Knight harming the Dark Matters? Yes, it seemed more than a likely cause.   
    "HEY!"  
    Dedede ran up, his royal robe a bit tattered. Why was he here again? Kirby didn't remember.  
    "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BLOWIN' UP MY CAR YOU BIG FLOATIN' MARSHMALLOW?!"  
    Slowly moving its gaze away from Kirby, the 'big floating marshmallow' looked down upon the— in comparison, dwarfish,— penguin king. Kirby could see that Escargoon was with the king, as usual.  
    "Sire, I think you've bitten off more than you can chew-"  
    "I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION!"  
    The penguin had seemingly noticed Kirby standing behind the orb, and dashed around the orb to Kirby. Oh yeah, he was mad, that was for sure.  
    "IS THIS ONE OF YOUR WEIRDO FRIENDS, KIRBY?!"  
    He practically yelled in Kirby's face. Escargoon joined him briefly, taking his time underneath the floating fellow's scrutinizing red eye. Kirby brought one of his 'hands' up to his face, trying to communicate how confused he was to the tyrant.  
    Kirby liked that idea, though. Another friend would be nice to have. Maybe Kirby and this guy could be friends! Kirby gleefully embraced the idea, completely forgetting about the fact that this thing attacked Meta Knight and was the boss of the Dark Matters.  
    "Poyo! Poyo, poyo!"  
    He tried to explain the situation to Dedede, but it seemed like he was having none of it.  
    "Maybe you should back off before this gets any worse, sire.."  
    Escargoon seemed awfully chilled by the way that Kirby's new friend looked at him. Kirby didn't know why Escargoon would be scared, but, eh.  
    Kirby noticed how the other two Dark Matters slowly rose up, much like the first one did. In a dazed and confused fashion. However, they found their way pretty quickly after moving around a bit. The three Dark Matters joined their big white orb.  
    "Hey, you should be honored our boss even bothered to so much look your way."  
    Dedede's head snapped towards the Dark Matter the voice came from.  
    "Such unparalleled and pure power only visits trashy planets like this one only once in a lifetime!"  
    Another one demeaned. Dedede obviously took offense to this, his rage growing.   
    "YOU-"  
    "WHAT THE KING MEANS TO SAY IS.. Haha, thank you for visiting our humble little garbage planet!"  
    Escargoon interjected quickly and dangerously. He bowed gracefully before the circles as if they were royalty. Dedede shot him a 'I'm going to choke you' glower, which made the snail shiver slightly.  
    "You should be thankful!"  
    "Even moreso since our boss won't destroy you."  
    "For now, of course. Prove your incompetence and well.."  
    The two Dark Matters began those strange laugh-like noises. The third one was just kinda staring at Kirby. It wasn't awkward whatsoever. Kirby meandered around a bit, but it was still staring at him.  
    "We uh, sure will try not to!"  
    Escargoon broke into nervous laughter before Dedede clonked him on the eyestalk with the side of his fist.  
    "I'm the king, got it?! Don't expect me to be singin' your praises after you DESTROYED MY CAR!"  
    "Whatever," The Dark Matter's tone was much like an angsty teenager's, "it looked pretty ugly anyways."  
    "WHAT?!"  
    From seemingly out of nowhere, Dedede had now grasped a wooden battle hammer, weiling it above his head. He rocketed towards the insulter, regardless of the fact that it levitated far above the ground. Before the hammer could even so much as be properly swung, though, an orange orb had dislodged itself from the black sphere in question. It had propelled itself directly into the king's stomach. It launched the king over the rooftops of Cappytown and into a neighboring street, separated by a row of buildings.  
    Escargoon didn't say anything. He just simply dashed to go find Dedede's landing spot.  
    "You're so cute.. I'd pet you if I had hands."  
    The Dark Matter that had been staring at Kirby finally spoke up. Kirby kinda wasn't really paying attention at all, so he didn't really hear that.  
    "Dark Matter, you're weird."  
    "You think everything here is cute."  
    "It's all so cute and tiny, though.. And look at him, he's pink!"  
    "He beat you up."  
    "He's still cute."  
    Kirby got his attention back at the ominously floating circles. They weren't Dedede's summoned guys, so they must be just travellers from out of town who are really, really dangerous and strong. So, maybe they weren't too bad.  
    "Well, he seems pretty harmless. Alright kid," One of them floated up to him, "here's the deal. My name's Dark Matter. These two over here are named Dark Matter too. My boss? Name is Zero. You go tell your friends that Zero ain't gonna be tearing up your little town here out of the kindness of it's black, evil heart. Got it?"  
    Kirby nodded. He could only speak one word, so the message might get lost in translation.  
    "Good, glad we're on the same page."  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby pat the fellow who had just spoken to him with his stub. It was like a forehead pat, only for floating, talking eyeballs.  
    "I think he likes you."  
    "Be quiet, Dark Matter."  
    A bit of banter, then the pat Dark Matter withdrew itself from Kirby's hand.  
    "We won't be of harm to you, so long as you aren't any harm to us. Seeya."  
    With that, the four orbs floated off into the distance. Did Kirby know where they were going? No. Was he going to forget all of that in maybe, like, five or so minutes? Absolutely.  


* * *

  
    "Sire, are you okay?"  
    Escargoon knew Dedede was fine. He still asked anyways out of necessity. Dedede rubbed the back of his head as he recovered from the attack that had been made on him.  
    "Eh? Where'd my mallet go? I need show that one-eyed disco ball that there ain't no messin' around with the king!"  
    He never changes. It's like he sees a list of his own problems right infront of his eyes before he perceives the actual world around him.  
    "Sire, those were super powered aliens that exploded your ARMORED car! You can't go off and fight them! They'll eat you up and spit you back out before you can even get a second hit on them!"  
    "They don't 'ave mouths."  
    Escargoon held back his sassy 'it's a figure of speech', as to make sure that he wasn't on the wrong end of the mallet once Dedede found it.  
    "Sire, not even Meta Knight stood a chance against them."  
    "What makes ya say that? He wasn't even there!"  
    Urge to yell in annoyance rising..  
    "He was passed out right behind Kirby.."  
    "What? I didn't see 'im!"  
    "Listen, sire. Please try to be respectful towards these aliens, despite how much your mind tells you otherwise. Try to at least tolerate them."  
    "Oh yeah? Why should I?"  
    "Because they threatened to destroy us, and I'm pretty sure they can if they wanted to."  
    "..Yeah, alright, fair enough."  
    Thank goodness it was that easy to convince him. Now, hopefully, these things wouldn't be too much trouble.. Or side with Kirby. 


	5. Interlude 1

    "Sir Meta Knight, please stay down!"  
    Blade's teacher was restless. Incredibly restless. He had plenty of reason to be so anxious, but his injuries at the moment were to get in the way if Meta Knight were to actually do anything. Blade had been hit in the fight as well, mostly when he had come to give Meta Knight his sword (he had to actually ask the sword's permission to hold it to bring it to Meta Knight before he could), but it was nothing compared to the blue knight's wounds. The concussion didn't make anything better, especially considering how he had refused to go to the doctor for it.   
    "Ya're only makin' yourself worse!"  
    Sword and Blade had showed their concern for his health by tying Meta Knight onto his bed so he couldn't move. His sword was properly out of hand so that way he couldn't use it to cut the bindings. Meta Knight still struggled anyways, despite how futile it was. Sword and Blade had been bandits in the past, they knew a thing or two about tying people up to random objects, and doing so in a way that would prevent escape.  
    "I must-"  
    "No, sir, we'll deal with the cleanup. Just stay here and get some rest."  
    Get as much rest as one could with tight ropes around oneself. Yeah, that did sound a little bit ridiculous, but if Meta Knight could survive three Dark Matters, then a confrontation from Zero itself, he'd be able to sleep with tight ropes on him.  
    "I am not concerned about the cleanup!"  
    He kept his emotions to a minimum usually, but he had been more irritated that usual because of the whole concussion thing. Plus, knowing that Zero is out and about in Dreamland probably isn't the most settling idea, especially when the three had seen what just a single Dark Matter can do to an unsuspecting planet. Having Zero here, and three of those little buggers— maybe even more,— flying around would not put anyone who knew about them at ease.  
    "Going back out there, sir, you'll get yourself beat up again. We're doing this for your own good."  
    Meta Knight was pretty stubborn when it came to this sort of thing. Kirby's life is in danger because of Zero's presence, should that monster so decide that Kirby is worth destroying in the first place.   
    None of them knew exactly what went on in that battle, because Meta Knight's consciousness went blinking in and out far too much for him to actually describe what happened properly after he hit the ground. Whatever Kirby had done, he had frightened Zero off, which is a pretty incredible feat for a tiny, pink baby puff.  
    Meta Knight relaxed, taking one loud breath out as he stopped struggling.  
    "Please. Untie me."  
    He asked in a sort of commanding, yet polite tone.  
    "No."  
    Blade responded.  
    "Sir, we'll follow you until you deem us worthy of being on our own as knights, and we do not wish for you to reach an untimely end by Zero's minions."  
    "..No matter what I say to you, it will not convince you to untie me, will it."  
    "Nope. Ya gotta rest."  
    The idea that there were to be an emergency that Meta Knight's skills would surely and easily handle had passed through Blade's mind on more than one occasion. Especially if that emergency were to be something regarding Zero.  
    "..."  
    "We'll do well by ya."  
    Sword reassured with a nod. With that, the two left Meta Knight's quarters. If he somehow found his way out of the ropes, the two hoped he respected them enough to listen to their advice.  
    For now, their current task was to clean up Cappytown from what had happened just yesterday.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here-on out, chapters will be 'episodes' and will not be given cliffhangers or segregated over multiple chapters unless completely necessary.


	6. A Light Bit Of Fun

    Tokkori really, really didn't like the looks of this. At all. It had been, what, maybe two or three days since them big ol' eyeballs came rampaging through Cappytown and here was one of them. Again. It sent shivers down his spine just thinking about how easily he could probably be hurt by one of these things, and here it was. Tokkori's wide eyed, terrified stare seemed to go unnoticed as the monster looked at who Tokkori had laid on.   
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby waved. Tokkori was sure that if this thing had a mouth, it'd be grinning ear to ear with some sort of sinister plot. No, Tokkori did not like this thing whatsoever. Mama always said stay away from round things unless the first second you know them, they do something good for people. This was no exception. This round thing was rotten and Tokkori not only had proof from couple days ago, but the feeling in his stomach that it was.  
    "Is Poyo your name..?"  
    It wondered out loud in a very calm, almost infatuated sort of way. Mouthlessly. That's creepy. Kirby titled his head slightly, making Tokkori almost fall off.   
    "Do you talk, bird?"  
    The tone here was a lot different, much more neutral and commanding. Now the attention was shifted on him, and the monster's eye had been locked onto his.  
    "Yes."  
    He held his tongue to not stutter or sound like some kind of jerk (the latter being the more impressive of the two, in his opinion). He did not hold back an ever so slight shiver, which the monster did not comment on.  
    "What's your pink friend's name?"  
    "It's, u-uhm," He internally cursed for sounding like some spineless sparrow, "Kirby."  
    It turned its attention back at Kirby. Tokkori could feel himself untensing and a sigh of exasperation caught in his throat. He really needed to grow some backbone, but it was way too early in the morning for this and he did not want to have to deal with some alien threat right now.  
    "Kirby.."  
    Tokkori saw its eye dilate. Did it like, love Kirby or something? That's like.. Really, really weird. Kirby was a kid, after all.  
    "So, where are you going today, Kirby?"  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby pointed at Kawasaki's restaurant, which he and Tokkori were prone to enter in not but a couple seconds to have their usual breakfast. This was maybe the first time Tokkori ever wished to rush into Kawasaki's establishment as quickly as he could. The eyeball scanned the building extremely quickly for its sign and what it could possibly be.  
    "Oh, do you mind if I join you?"  
    Tokkori's face went pale. It couldn't be seen under his neon yellow feathers, thankfully.  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby was enthralled by the question, on the other wing. He nodded slightly, as to not have Tokkori be jarred or fall off. Oh, oh no. Ooooooh no. Oh no. Bad, bad, very bad. Incredibly, terribly bad. Tokkori's voice of protest couldn't muster itself out of him, so all that came out was a weird sound between whining and groaning. Kirby didn't notice, of course.  
    Kirby went to enter the property, Tokkori assumed the monster was right behind the two now, following them, but he hadn't the guts to check. Kirby went and knocked on the door. A couple seconds later, it slid open.  
    "Hey-"  
    Kawasaki didn't need to take a double check before he went and slammed the door closed. Yeah, Tokkori would have the same reaction, honestly. The destruction around town was enough to make anyone scared of this thing.  
    "K-Kirby there's a m-monster behind you!"  
    He shuttered through the door, which muffled his voice ever so slightly. Kirby went to find the monster behind him. He seemed to look and look, but he had found nothing. Kirby really did think this thing was his friend, huh?  
    "Poyo..?"  
    He knocked on the door again. Kawasaki opened it maybe a sliver, so that way he could peak out and the two customers and nightmarish floating eyeball creature. He kept his line of sight at Kirby, though.  
    "Poyo, poyo."  
    Kirby explained gracefully. Kawasaki was still unnerved despite the explanation of what was going on. He made that weird nervous 'mmm' noise he made whenever he was tense.  
    "Is it-"  
    "Yes, I'm friendly. May we enter?"  
    It was annoyed. Probably because it was called a monster.  
    "Haha, o-of course..!"  
    He slid the door back for the three to come in. The eyeball bumped the top of their sphere on the way in, making a loud thunk. It didn't stop moving or make a painful noise, though.  
    Kirby went and sat down at their usual table, putting Tokkori on said table. Kirby sat across from him. The two usually took opposite sides on the table, and today would be no different, even if they had.. Less than desirable company, to Tokkori.  
    It had stopped levitating, placing itself on the floor, fine without a seat cushion underneath. It sat inbetween the two, looking at the room around, and also looking at Kirby. Mostly looking at Kirby, though. Really, it was creepy. Tokkori couldn't push enough how creepy it was.  
    When Kawasaki eventually got to take the orders, he kept his eyes strictly on his notepad or on the ground. Not once did he dare to look up, for fear of catching the monster's gaze had wet his forehead with sweat. It glistening in the electric light of the room. Gross. Tokkori got the orders out, and Kirby seemed happy with what he ordered (he always was), so that was good.  
    The wait was a bit awkward. Kirby was chatting with the eyeball in very one-sided conversations while Tokkori just kinda stared at the table's cover. The waits were never really fun in general with Kirby being about as good at conversation as a doll that had three whole phrases to say whenever you pulled its' string.  
    "You are afraid of me, bird."  
    Tokkori snapped out of his table fixation. He met eyes once more with it and shivered unintentionally.  
    "Why is that?"  
    Tokkori could list hundreds of different reasons.  
    "You- er- one of your pals destroyed the mayor's car. Then Dedede's armored one."  
    He sounded a bit more sheepish than usual.  
    "That's what it was? A 'car'? I thought it was a monster trying to attack me.."  
    Oh, you're one to talk.  
    "Perhaps.. If I go apologize, would you no longer be afraid of me?"  
    It proposed. Tokkori didn't know if monsters could be truthful or even feel empathy for others, but this was definitely new compared to the other monsters Kirby had fought. This one wanted to make Tokkori not fear it. Which is kinda weird.  
    "Because since you are Kirby's friend, I want you to be my friend too. I don't think we can be friends if you're scared of me."  
    Friends? Hmm.. Maybe there could be a friendship here, yes. It could be pretty profitable and useful to have a powerful monster on his side for.. Well, reasons.  
    "Sure, I'll be your friend if ya go apologize."  
    His usual voice was back. Yes, he'll be its friend.  
    "So.. What is your name, then?"  
    "Tokkori, don't go wearin' it out."  
    "My name is Dark Matter."  
    Dark Matter, huh? Yeah, that was kind of expected. A sinister name for a sinister creature.  
    "Well, Dark Matter, Kirby knows the way 'round town so he can show ya to the mayor's. I have official bird business to do after this."  
    Kirby perked up at the sound of his name. He was just blissfully in his own imagination whilst the two conversed. Probably thinking of what Kawasaki was making in the kitchen, but much, much better quality.  
    "Poyo!"  
    He stated, raising his arm up into the air.  


* * *

  
    After another great breakfast from Kawasaki's, Kirby waved to the chef, who wore a more pale complexion than usual. Maybe he was sick? Kirby didn't think that was very good. Hopefully he got better soon. As he and his two friends headed out, Tokkori said something that Kirby didn't quite catch before the bird hurried off into the sky. Kirby waved goodbye, again.  
    Now it was just him and Dark Matter. He hadn't seen them in a day or two, and he was kinda worried he and Meta Knight went too hard on the guy. The idea of chasing off a friend didn't sit right with Kirby. Regardless, now it was time to do some friend activities! Uhh.. Well, with Tiff and Tuff Kirby just kinda played in their friend group with them. That probably wouldn't work with Dark Matter, since they don't have the same capabilities as a Cappy does.  
    "So, will you show me the way to the mayor's home, Kirby?"  
    Oh, yeah! Yeah, yeah, yeah. Kirby nodded and thought for a second, looking down each way of the road to understand where he was in town. Then, he started walking. Dark Matter floated close by. As the two walked down the street, Cappys would panic and run off into their homes as Kirby approached. Which was kinda weird, he didn't think he had anything on his face.  
    Kirby stopped, wiping his face with his stub just to make sure that any scary things were off of his face. Then, he checked Dark Matter's face, spotting a bit of jam that had been splat onto their black surface from breakfast.  
    When Kirby puffed up to fly up to the spot (how it had gotten up there in the first place he didn't know), Dark Matter showed a bit of confusion, but then realized what was going on. Kirby landed on their 'head' and wiped the jam right off. There, now they were presentable and clean for the public to see.  
    "Oh, did I have something on me? Thank you, Kirby."  
    Kirby stuck the jam covered stub into his mouth, like anyone else would do if they had gotten a piece of food off someone else's face.  
    "How about you stay up there and just give me directions? It'll be faster. Just tap my head what direction you want me to go when we come to an intersection, alright?"  
    Kirby nodded, not that they could see. Thus, they were off down the street. Yeah, it was a lot faster. Even faster than if Kirby ran down the road at full speed. Since it wasn't too fast, Kirby didn't have a problem in regards to hanging onto the top of them. The two whizzed by Cappys, going past Chief Bookum as well. He had his speedometer out and had yelled something about 'going over the speed limit' as the two passed. Whatever that meant.  
    Dark Matter came to a slow once they approached a cross in the road. Kirby tapped with his left arm, and Dark Matter went left. Easy enough. This continued until a particular Cappy stood in the middle of the street, forcing Dark Matter and Kirby to stop their movement towards the mayor's. Oh, it was Tiff.  
    "Kirby! What do you think you're doing!? That's a monster!"  
    Kirby felt a slight rumble underneath him. It wasn't one that emitted sound. Kirby looked down at Tiff. She was pale, her pupils constricted. Her hands were made into fists, which twitched every so often. Man, everyone was pale today! Was there a sickness going around? Kirby hoped he didn't catch it..  
    "Poyo, poyo poyo.."  
    Kirby explained. This was his friend, not a monster. He had no idea what Tiff was talking about. Tiff's angry expression scared him, though. He moved back on Dark Matter's head, slightly away from Tiff. It's like she thought he did something wrong! He wasn't doing anything wrong!  
    "Get down here right now, Kirby! And you! Get out of Cappytown! We don't want to see your ugly mug here ever again, got me?! Or else I'm going to get Sir Meta Knight to come and-"  
    "Oh, will you now..? Get him to come and beat me up, will you..?"  
    Dark Matter's voice was drenched with smooth, condescending venom. Kirby couldn't see it, but their eye had wided and pupil shrunk dangerously in bountiful malice. They had leaned, now towering over Tiff, their eye focused on her. Neither could he feel it, but the air grew heavy and riddled with a feeling that caused great anxiety.  
    "Do tell me, child.. What would he do if he never got a message from you, hmm..? What if you ceased to exist right here and now..? What would happen then, hmm..?"  
    They threatened, dangerously. Kirby didn't like the sound of that. He didn't want Tiff to cease to exist! He pat Dark Matter's sphere head, snapping the sudden atmosphere and their look right off. Tiff was still inflicted with breathless horror despite how Dark Matter lowered themselves and relaxed.  
    "Oh, uhm.. Sorry, Kirby. I sensed she had frightened you. Let us be on our way.."  
    Yeah, Tiff was scary when she was mad, sometimes. Kirby didn't really like it when that happened. It came with scolding. Regardless, Dark Matter weaved around the still frozen Tiff and continued down the road. Kirby didn't question the whole 'sensing you were frightened' thing.  
    Kirby knew she was going to be fine, there were only two cars in Cappytown and both of them were out of commission. Kirby turned is attention back on the road and the directions. The two had to go to the mayor's, after all.  
  
    When they arrived, the mayor was meeting with Gengu and Gus. Probably about his car, no doubt. He had his big scrap heap in the front yard, and the two other Cappys were investigating it. They didn't seem to notice the two approach, so Kirby could just listen in to find out what they were doing before Kirby announced his presence.   
    "That's probably all we're gonna be salvagin' outta this hunk of metal."  
    Gus stated. Oh, okay, they were salvaging it. Whatever that meant. Kirby would ask later.  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby greeted, making the three turn to him and Dark Matter. There was less of a second of silence before the three broke out into screaming. Very, very girly screaming. Still screaming, they all scrambled up the mayor's porch (trampling eachother in the process) and into his house.  
    "Well, at least they remember me."  
    Dark Matter humored, floating calmly. Kirby went up to the door and tried the knob. In their sudden fear, they had forgotten to lock the door. Well, that's fine by Kirby. It just meant he could go find the mayor and calmly explain what happened whilst Dark Matter waited outside. Not like they could fit through the door with how round they were.  
    When he did find the three fully grown adult men, they were all huddled in the mayor's bedroom at the back of his closet. Kirby poyoed them into being calm, leading them back outside. Of course, they were sheepish. For what reason, Kirby didn't understand. He wasn't going to bother to ask, either.  
    "Poyo, poyo poyo!"  
    Kirby explained, running back over to Dark Matter and floating onto their head.  
    "I'm sorry for whatever inconvenience I've caused to you for destroying your car, mayor."  
    Dark Matter spoke true, neutral yet slightly guilty in tone.   
    "D-Don't worry about it, s-she was getting old anyways..!"  
    His voice was shaky, but at least Dark Matter's appology was accepted. That's all Kirby could really ask for.  
    As they turned away and headed back down the road they came from, Kirby noted the loud sigh of relief that had come from the porch behind the two. Were they relieved to have Kirby and his friend leave..? Kirby didn't like that.. Was he being annoying? It didn't feel very good to have people not want you around. Kirby couldn't imagine how Dark Matter felt, though. Though he doubted the sigh was about them in the first place.  
    The plain path was generally uneventful. It was wide to drive cars on, and was dirty from gravel and dry, orange looking dirt. Kirby didn't like to walk on it, usually walking on the grass, but having someone else lift him over it was actually way nicer.  
    "Do you have anything else you want to do?"  
    Good question. Yes, he wanted to do some more stuff with Dark Matter, but he didn't specifically know what he wanted to do. Hmm.. Well, they did the thing they needed to do, but what else was there to do?  
    "Perhaps you could show me to your favorite places?"  
    That was going to be difficult. Everywhere was Kirby's favorite place. Maybe he could randomly pick some of his favorite places and visit some friends he hadn't seen in a while? Yeah, that'd be good! Kirby nodded to himself approvingly.  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    He stated. Maybe some of Kirby's older friends could be friends with Dark Matter, since they didn't know the orb yet? Yes, perfect. New friend meeting old friends! Perfect. Perfect, perfect. Kirby was excited just thinking about it. He poyoed in excitement.  
    "Just direct me which way to go, then."  
    Kirby did just that. The first stop was not very far away, and considering how fast Dark Matter went down the streets of Cappytown, Kirby had no doubt that the two of them would get there lickety-split. Dark Matter hovered slightly high above the plains, so Kirby could get a really good view of where to go. Not to mention, it was kinda pretty to get a birds eye view without having to fight a monster. Usually whenever he was up this high, he was on the warpstar.  
    The rushing green grass, the feel and sound of the wind, looking down at trees and bushes as they passed, it was really nice. Dark Matter sure was good at flying, he'd give them that. Though he guessed rolling around to move wasn't really an option for them.  
    The travel was maybe a minute or less before Dark Matter slowed, much like a train would. To prevent Kirby from launching off of them if they had stopped suddenly. Smart stuff. Kirby had directed Dark Matter to a cape that overlooked the sparkling blue ocean, tide at a decent level between high and low. Yes, this seemed like the perfect time.  
    "Poyo!"  
    "You want me to go down? Or is there somewhere else-"  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    "Alright, I'll just guess that means to go down."  
    Dark Matter lowered themselves down from the sky and past the large formations of rock that made up cliffside down to the rock beach. Kirby hopped off and onto the hard, stable stone. The stone was sandy from the high tides that had washed a bunch of stuff onshore last night, which annoyed Kirby a tad. He liked sand, but not when it was like, everywhere. Sand castles and all that were fun, but having sand stuck all over you? Not so much fun.  
    Kirby wandered up to the soft waters of the ocean, splashing slightly with his arm. Dark Matter wondered what Kirby was doing, though it wasn't really all too much. Just splashin a bit of water around for no reason, Kirby just wanted to. Unimportant as that was, Kirby stopped splashing the water.   
    "POYOOOOOO!"  
    Kirby called out.   
    There was a couple of large bubbles that came up from the ocean, not too far off. Kirby was excited! He would get to see Kine again! He didn't remember how long ago it was since he last saw Kine, what with all the Rainbow Coral stuff that had happened, but eh. Kirby wanted to see him!  
    Kine surfaced not but a second or two after Kirby's train of thought had passed the station. With his mouth wide open as he usually had it, he swam towards Kirby.  
    "Hi Kirby! Are you coming out for a swim? Is Tiff around here?"  
    Kirby shook his head, Kine looking a bit saddened because of it. He perked back up almost instantly.  
    "Hey, who's your friend here?"  
    Kine asked, regarding Dark Matter. Though, they didn't offer the best response.  
    "You're.. An ordinary fish? Who can talk?"  
    "Yeah, and you're a big, floating eye who can talk, so.."  
    "Touché. My name is Dark Matter."  
    "Mine's Kine, and might I say what a lovely eyecolor you have."  
    Dark Matter seemed to freeze up at the compliment. An awkward, long, three second silence lingered. Even Kirby felt slightly uncomfortable.  
    "I.. Well, thank you.."  
    The staggered out. It had just caught them off guard. Maybe they didn't receive compliments too often. That's kinda sad. Kirby needed to change that! Maybe he'd do it later, though, once he had thought all of the stuff he could compliment out. He was thinking up some pretty good ones right now. Dark Matter was a good friend, so a good friend deserved compliments!  
    "You're welcome! Say, can you swim?"  
    "I could theoretically move in water, yes. But.. My eye and salt water don't really get along all too well. Or sand. I don't have hands, so.."  
    "Oh," Kine again, seemed saddened, "well that's too bad! The ocean is very pretty! The land's pretty too, but I think I might like the ocean a bit better. If you ever get something to let you see underwater, maybe you could come visit Rainbow Coral Reef!"  
    "..Yeah, alright."  
    Kine's eyes shined when he got that response. His two friends were getting along, so that was great for Kirby! He danced ever so slightly from happiness. The dance was shortlived, as Dark Matter forced Kirby back onto their head.  
    "We and Kirby must go, though. Many other places to see. It was nice to chat with you, Kine."  
    "Oh! Well, drop by any time!"  
    They were off once more. Well, it was a short trip, but it was a nice one. Speaking of short trips, it seems like Dark Matter really was hurrying away from the beach. Too much sand? Yeah, too much sand. Well, it was fine, they can come back later, like Kine said. Now it was time to go off and see another friend!   
  
    The trip was a lot faster than the previous, despite how far off it was compared to where the Kine meetup spot was. This time, the two had landed in a forest, which Kirby had to then direct their friend through. Dark Matter seemed uncertain about who they were going to meet down in a forest full of just trees, plants, and nothing else.  
    Kirby jumped off of their head, landing on his feet with style and extreme grace. Thusly, he rushed around to find who he was looking for. Not all too hard, he was in the middle of a clearing, after all. Kirby did find it easily, as he had planned.   
    Kirby bounced up to the very inconspicuous tree. The moment he did, the tree's bark broke and twisted silently, snapping and distorting into the shape of a simple face. Two eyeholes and a mouth. Before Kirby could get too close, however, a brown root shot up from the earthy forest ground, grabbed Kirby by the foot and held him there. Dark Matter's eye constricted at this.  
    "Be careful, Kirby! You'll step on my flower.."  
    His voice was calm and smooth, deep and relaxing. This was Whispy, no doubt. Kirby was put back down gently, Dark Matter's eye going back to normal as he did. Kirby poyoed curiously at the flower whilst the big root retreated. Sure enough, in front of the talking tree, there was a small mound. A small, orange flower stood there. Charming and tiny. Kirby waddled up to the flower, tapping its petal. A smaller root came from nearly underneath the flower, pushing Kirby slightly away from it. It hid quickly back into the ground afterwards.  
    "Please don't touch it, Kirby."  
    Whispy insisted.  
    "I've seen this sort of flower before. On other planets. Some flower must've spread its seeds to a meteor that hit here some time ago. They take an extraordinarily long time to blossom. That's what I've heard, anyways.."  
    "Oh..? Hello, I didn't see you there.. Who are you?"  
    "Dark Matter."  
    "Oh, you.. Are very intimidating. My name is Whispy. I'm the guardian of this forest."  
    Dark Matter sighed.  
    "I get that a lot. Not that I'm complaining, of course. Did you know that when this flower wilts, it will spread its seeds up to a fifty metre radius around it? It'll do this until it covers an entire continent with flowers. It takes millions of years, but it is beautiful."  
    "You've seen it..?"  
    Kirby was busy doing his own thing at the moment. Said thing being floating himself up to Whispy's leaf-covered branches. Hidden in these branches were red, delicious apples.  
    "It's a way to slowly destroy a planet to turn it into something beautiful at the end. It gets rid of ecosystems, makes land infertile, it's like a parasite. A very, very pretty and adorable parasite. My Boss and my siblings have visited, what, one planet that's entirely made up of those flowers. Nothing else on it, completely empty except for those flowers and the bodies of water. They were on mountains, in deserts, I literally do mean everywhere."  
    "That's a bit chilling.. And you're an alien..?"  
    Kirby had found his way to an apple up in the branches. A good ol' snack after just maybe an hour or two after breakfast.  
    "I mean.. Yeah, I guess. My Boss prefers to call us intergalactic travelers, but alien works too."  
    "That's interesting.. Are there any other planets you've been to like that?"  
    "Since you think a flower-covered planet is chilling, maybe I shouldn't tell you if I have."  
    "Good point.."  
    Kirby wasn't paying attention. Like, at all. He was paying attention to how good Whispy's apples were, they were like the perfect balance of crunch and taste! Not too hard, not too soft, and juicy too.   
    He sorta had tuned out all of the conversation in order to focus on the apple. The red, glossy shine of the skin that reflected the sun directly into his eyes, the semi-ripeness of it that kept the apple in more than just one color, the stem with one little cute leaf on it.. Oh how good it was! Kirby shoved the entire thing into his mouth, and swallowed it whole. He repeated this maybe seventeen to thirty two times before he was satisfied with himself.   
    He sat back on the branch, giving a contented "poyo" out as he looked up.  
    "Ehm.. Kirby? Did you want to take me somewhere else? It's been a while. Not that I didn't enjoy taking with you, Whispy."  
    Wait, it's been a while? That couldn't be, Kirby just started eating a second ago. Oh. No, yeah, the sun was now directly above them. It had been hours. Kirby floated down from Whispy's branches, back onto his friend's head once more. He waved goodbye to Whispy.  
    "Do come visit again, you two..!"  
    His voice trailed off as Dark Matter rose directly up into the sky, out of the forest. There was still plenty of time left in the day, maybe Kirby could take them to the castle! Yes, he saw absolutely nothing wrong with this idea! It was flawless!  
    "Where are we off to now, then?"  
    Kirby scanned the area, quickly finding the weird mountain thing that the castle sat upon, then began tapping which ways to go on Dark Matter's head.  
    "Oh, we're going to that big castle? Do you live there?"  
    Well, not really, but it was kinda hard to explain.  
    "Poyo, poyo pooyoo poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby tried to work it as eloquently as he could.  
    "..Uhuh."  
    That's all they said in response. Good to know he got it all out in such a way where they would have zero questions about it. Kirby was proud of himself.  
    The approach to the castle was swift. There was, something, a bit swifter than the approach. When they had gotten very close to the castle, maybe a couple hundred feet from the outer wall, canonballs began to fire out of the castle's, artillery. Faster than Kirby was able to react, he was smashed by one of these balls, and sent flying off Dark Matter.  
    Dazed and confused, he was spiraling to the ground for maybe half a second before he felt the familiar surface of his friend's head. He felt that rumble below him again as he landed. Eyesight coming back into focus, he noticed the amount of canonballs being shot. Wow, that's a lot. Like, a lot. Dark Matter was a pro at dodging, thankfully.  
    Kirby held onto Dark Matter, pressing to make himself as flat as possible to avoid being hit. Watching canonballs almost hit him, even as he was pressed as flatly as possible against Dark Matter, was not a good time. He would not recommend it if someone asked him what some fun activities were to do. Kirby saw a faint twinkle out of the corner of his eye. Looking back at Dark Matter's 'back' where all the orange orbs are, something was off. They were all a bright, glowing purple color.  
    "Poyo?"  
    He questioned before looking back towards the castle. An electrical crackling, a very familiar noise, had brought itself to his ears once more. Not for long, which he was thankful for. When the crackles stopped, he observed a laser of a similar purple being blasted from a congregated ball of energy that Dark Matter had gathered infront of their eye.  
    When this laser collided with the castle's canons, it lead to a small, individual purple explosion. This was not the only laser that had been fired, so the castle wall was now being absolutely littered with these explosions. Waddle Dees were being sent into the sky, into the moat, behind the wall, just absolutely everywhere.   
    Upon stopping, not a single canonball was fired. All the canons had been blasted off the protective wall.  
    Dark Matter floated silently into the castle's garden. Well, that wasn't a very good introduction, was it? Kirby was afraid they might not like the castle because of that whole thing. Kirby pat Dark Matter, as if to say that it was okay.  
    The Waddle Dees in the garden had all fled as soon as they had spotted Kirby and his friend float in. Oh well, maybe Kirby could introduce them to the Waddle Dees at a later date. Er, well, re-introduce them. Kirby slid off Dark Matter, and onto the soft, well-husbanded and recently mowed green grass. He waddled over to the fountain, which was still going under repairs from the big fire dog that came by a couple days ago.  
    Dark Matter seemed contented over there, sitting in the grass. They had lowered themselves down onto the ground and everything. For a moment, there was no sound other than the soft drip of a broken fountain's leaky pipes. Drip, drip, drip.  
    Then, there was a loud, obnoxious buzzing sound. The sound of yelling followed. It was muffled, so the sound was indoors, but it was still loud. Kirby covered his ears, and Dark Matter seemed suspicious, raising up from the ground in alert. The buzzing was growing closer, and closer. Like someone was running around with a hacksaw at full power. A really, really big hacksaw.  
    Dark Matter's eye narrowed.  
    "Kirby, come here."  
    It commanded. Kirby did as he was told, coming over via his cute waddle jog thing.  
    ...  
    ...  
    ...  
    It burst through the castle wall like a man hidden inside a birthday cake. Debris flew and scattered, which some had headed straight towards the two pals, but Dark Matter swung infront of Kirby to protect him. Launching their orange balls at whatever piece dared to come too near. Once the debris had been warded off, Dark Matter receded to being by Kirby's side, staring daggers at the thing.  
    It was very, very large, it was. It towered over Dark Matter and Kirby. Which was not reassuring considering this thing was just a gigantic sawblade with an eye in the middle. One huge, rotating blade. From the hole it had cut through the stone castle, Dedede and Escargoon ran out. Dedede had a large grin on his face, same with Escargoon.  
    "Excellent choice, sire! This'll do Kirby in for sure!"  
    Escargoon praised, sing-songingly.  His face of praise had evaporated all to quickly after he caught sight of Dark Matter. Oh boy, Kirby had to fight today? Oh bother. He was really hoping to spend some more time with Dark Matter, but if he had to defend them from a huge sawblade monster, he would.  
    "Alright Sawyer! You go find that Kirby and you cut him to shreds ya hear me?!"  
    The king announced, happy.   
    "U-Uhm.. S-Sire.."  
    Escargoon's tone had exchanged with a very much more distressed one. Dedede looked at the snail, eyebrow raised. A simple point told Dedede all he needed to know.  
    "Oh, there he is right now! Go get 'em!"  
    Kirby looked around for whatever he might be able to suck up to fight this monster. Oh, yeah! Kirby opened his mouth, creating a small whirlwind to eat a chunk of rock that Sawyer had cut out of the castle wall. After a brief transformation sequence, Kirby had transformed into a brown version of himself, complete with weird rock crown. Rock Kirby, if Kirby remembered correctly.  
    Before he could do anything, he noticed Dark Matter twitching. The balls on their back glowing purple once more. Now he could actually see them charge the laser. Oh, that charged ball of theirs seems a bit big, were they going to be okay?  
    "Po-"  
    Before he had time to fully ask his question, Dark Matter had flown full speed towards Sawyer, charged ball still in hand. Sawyer, quick to see, revved up their saw blade to go and attack the flying black sphere. Not that it did much of anything, Dark Matter just swung around to go directly infront of Sawyer's singular eye. With no mercy, they blasted Sawyer. Directly in the pupil.  
    A strange, metalical screeching followed after the impact, which only continued as Dark Matter began to shock the life out of Sawyer. Sawyer began to just run around blindly, screaming as Dark Matter unrelentingly electrocuted it. The only time they stopped was to charge up the laser to blast the sawblade with again, once more in the eye.  
    It took not but an awkward minute before Sawyer collapsed onto its side, then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. The jaw drop on Dedede was legendary. Escargoon had already fled the scene of the crime long before Sawyer fell. It was a good thing he did too, because now Dark Matter's pure hatred was now directed towards the penguin king. They essentially teleported over to him, the balls on their back still glowing brightly of purple.  
    Wait, what?  
    Kirby ran over as fast as he could, putting himself between Dark Matter, who was once more charging, and Dedede, who was scared stiff. Seeing this as a good time, Dedede skedaddled as fast as he could. Dark Matter's charge faded. Before Dedede could get totally out of range, Dark Matter fired a bolt of black lightning at the king for good measure.  
    Kirby discarded his copy ability to the wind. It disappeared in a flurry of little stars. He planned to fight it himself, but.. Well, Dark Matter sure saved him a lot of trouble. Kirby pat the orb below the eye. If they had a chin, that's where he would be patting. But, they don't, so below the eye it was. Dark Matter relaxed from their tense and angry state.  
    "You're so cute.. I'm sorry for scaring you, Kirby. It's just.. Well, the idea of anything hurting you makes me mad."  
    Dark Matter complimented. Kirby blinked, smiled a bit, and gave a quick "poyo" of thanks.  
    "My siblings, the way they hurt you a couple days ago.. I can't even stand to think about it. They were bragging about it, too! It's just! Uugh!"  
    Pat, pat.  
    "..If those two fools , the penguin and snail, do anything to you, I will personally wipe them from this planet's clean face like the speck of mud they are."  
    Kirby shook his head unapprovingly.  
    "..No..?"  
    "Poyo, poyo.."  
    "..Are.. They your friends?"  
    Kirby nodded. They weren't the best of friends Kirby could have, but Kirby still counted Escargoon and Dedede as some form of friend. It was a weird, kinda offbrand friend, but it was still a friend regardless. Dark Matter went solemn.  
    Then there was a sigh.  
    "Everyone is your friend, even me..?"  
    Kirby nodded. Everyone was Kirby's friend. Yes. Kirby believed everyone deserved his friendship, because he was more than happy to give it to anyone who so much as asked for it. He wanted others to be happy. Even if what made Dedede and Escargoon happy was the idea of him being crushed into a pulp.  
    "...Thank you for today, Kirby. I should get going. Maybe we'll hang out some time soon..?"  
    Kirby smiled, nodding again. Dark Matter closed their eye. Kirby could tell they were happy too.  
    "Alright, goodbye."  
    Kirby gave a wave as Dark Matter floated off. Well, now that Kirby was at the castle, maybe he could go play games with Tuff? Oh, yeah, that sounded fun! Kirby rushed into the big gaping hole that Sawyer had made, dashing down the halls of the castle to go find Tuff. Today was going to be fun all the way through.  
  
  
    "Did ya see that, Blade?"  
    "It protected him."  
    "'Suppose that one inparticular ain't too bad, eh?"  
    "We can't be sure."  
    "Meta Knight orderin' for those canons was a bit extreme, though."  
    "He's just paranoid. I think we should ask Waddle Doo to null Meta Knight's command."  
    "Roight with ya. Don't want any mad Dark Matters 'round 'ere."


	7. A Matter of Double Proportions

    The lazy midday had come once more over Cappytown. The town had almost entirely healed from what happened a week ago with the Dark Matters. Elveryone was generally happy so long as Kirby wasn't riding around on one of the things and causing general chaos. The citizens were lucky enough to just have the few days of peace before Kirby met up with his 'friend' again, and the two went through Cappytown like a car without breaks.  
    Other than terrorizing the citizens, giving the older Cappys heart attacks— which was kinda a regular thing Kirby did— the two had hung out and just done some general friend stuff. One sided conversations, as one would know, being the best way to make friends.  
    But it was just after they had left when something else happened. Two other Dark Matters floated towards Kirby, from a different direction. They were slightly differently colored than the one he had spent more time with, he noted. These two were a lot darker. They were the exact same size, though.  
    "Hey there, Kirby!"  
    The tone was one of secret, sinister intentions. Kirby figured his more well known Dark Matter friend must've told these two his name. He didn't mind. He smiled and gave a poyo.  
    "Whatcha doin here, all by yourself?"  
    The other snickered. Kirby was having fun with the lighter Dark Matter, but since they left, he wasn't really doing much of anything. Kirby just kinda shrugged. Maybe he could have a friend time with these two? He had only fought with them a week or so ago, and that really wasn't the best introduction. If they were going to be around, Kirby needed to be friends with them.  
    "Poyo, poyo."  
    Kirby explained, waddling towards them and reaching upwards to levitating twins. The two scooched back a bit to not be touched.  
    "You wanna play or something, pipsqueak?"  
    "Poyo!"  
    Kirby did, indeed want to play. The Dark Matters were pleased by this, he could tell. Well, he was happy! He was glad he could bond with the other Dark Matters too, even if they did seem like they were up to something.  
    "Alright Kirby, we'll play with ya. Yeah, y'know, I have an idea of a game we could play."  
    "Oh, what is it, Dark Matter?"  
    "Glad you asked, Dark Matter."  
    "You're welcome."  
    "Y'see, I was thinkin' we could play something like.. Y'know, cat and mouse? Where the mouse runs around and the cat tries to catch them? It's real fun, trust me."  
    Kirby tilted his head of curiosity. That just sounded like Tag to him. He was in a prime place to play tag, this big open field that the lighter Dark Matter had departed from. Kirby nodded hesitantly, knowing how fast the Dark Matters were made him think this wasn't going to be a very fair game..  
    "Oh, good! Well, when a cat eats a mouse, what happens is that the mouse gets eaten. In our game, we can't eat eachother, so we'll just shock the mouse if we catch them. It has to be a full body tackle for it to count as a catch!"  
    Oh.  
    "Kirby, how about you be mouse first?"  
    Kirby didn't really.. Want to be mouse. His face showed his concern, but even with how crystal clear his expression was, the Dark Matters continued.  
    "Alright, since we're nice, we'll give you a.. Hmm.. Fifty second head start."  
    One nodded.  
    "That seems pretty generous to me. But whatever, should be more fun that way."  
    The other replied, their eye showing how giddy they were by the idea. Kirby kinda shook his head. The other two turned around, like they were playing a game of hide and seek.  
    "Alright, fifty seconds starting.. Now!"  
    Kirby flinched before booking it the opposite way. He couldn't go too fast because he had no legs, only feet. He ran as quickly as he could, the adrenaline pumping through his veins as the idea of being shocked flooded his tiny baby brain. The image of Meta Knight being shocked. Kirby shook the image away as he kept running. Running, running, until he came to a small patch of forestry. He puffed up, quick, and flew into the saftey of the branches. It was sure to hide him, to throw off the Dark Matters.  
    Kirby was a teensy bit scared. He knew it was a bonding game, but he still didn't really enjoy it all too much. He didn't want to get hurt. Getting hurt was bad. And it hurt. He tremored slightly in the tree, rustling the leaves and moving the branch. Then, he kept his ill thoughts and moving to a low as he heard the wind rush, and the chirping of the birds who were incapable of speech.  
    He focused on small things to calm himself down. That caterpillar on a leaf, the sky, the bushes below, the few other trees he could've chosen to hide in.. Yes, this was nice. It made him forget he was being chased by two attackers who wanted to barbecue him like a freshly thawed meat patty. He blinked, a bit drowsy from all the running he had just done.  
    His eyes closed.  
    He was asleep.  
    Then, he was rudely woken up by the feeling of being smacked by what felt like a wrecking ball. It smashed him onto the ground, breaking the tree branch he was sitting on. Just as quickly as that had happened, of all his nerves basically being set on fire. Kirby's cry of agony was heard by all within a mile radius. It make him tear up, how bad it felt.   
    He cried, and cried, and cried. Was there no end?  
    It felt like an eternity. It was two seconds. Feeling like he had been burnt alive, Kirby spasmed slightly as he laid on the comforting, soft grass. The electricity left his body, going into the ground. He panted, wheezed, even. How had Meta Knight managed to take so many shocks like that without keeling over after the first one hit?  
    "Gotcha."  
    Kirby flinched. Blinking and still twitching, he rolled over onto his side to get onto his feet.  
    "Oh, you found him."  
    Kirby shot the two Dark Matters a half-hearted glare. They probably couldn't help how many volts they had sent through Kirby, so it wasn't really their fault in the first place, he guessed..  
    "Well, I'm bored now. Let's play a different game."  
    Kirby didn't have a good feeling about this.  
  
    "See, now this is what I'm talking about! A nice, big gorge!"  
    The Dark Matter Kirby rode on commented, looking down at the long fall from the top. Kirby was not so lightly forced off the Dark Matter via the Dark Matter rotating to make Kirby slide off.  
    "Y'know, this reminds me of that one time we were on that big desert planet. Remember that?"  
    "With all the big worms?"  
    "No."  
    "The tiny cactus one?"  
    "Yes, the tiny cactus one! Yeah, that thing was cool. It had big ravines of sand and nothing else-"  
    Kirby had stopped listening. It was uninteresting, the two were just talking to eachother. He wanted to stay interested in whatever his new friends were saying, but it was hard to do when there's so many other things to be paying attention to.  
    Like the brown rock beneath his feet, and the small pebbles that littered around the top of the plateau. Kirby liked the look of this small, blue rock. It contrasted the rest of the rocks here. He picked it up. Then, he spotted another nice looking rock. Then, another. He wandered around, collecting this nice little rocks. He liked the way they looked, some of them how they felt. He was having a hard time holding all the little stones.  
    He was having a decently nice time collecting rocks, until he felt something hard hit his side, casting him over the harsh gorge edge. All his rocks had been tossed out of his arms.  
    Kirby panicked, trying to flail in mid-air. His mind rushed with irrelevant thoughts. Only when he hit the ground did he realize he could float. His body pancaked against the hard rock at the bottom of the gorge.   
    "P-Poyo.."  
    Kirby put his hands on the ground, slowly getting back onto his feet. He scanned the bottom. His rocks were nowhere to be seen. Which made Kirby a bit somber, as he was hoping to bring those home to keep on the windowsill. Well, there were plenty more rocks on the ground. Kirby rubbed his face for the time being. It was bruised from the landing. His side hurt too, from whatever had hit him.  
    "Oh, Kirby, why are you down there?"  
    One of the twins called down to him. Kirby looked up. Yeah, that was quite a bit of a fall. Kirby waved up.  
    "Get back up here! We're gonna go and find somewhere else to go!"  
    "That was redundant."  
    "Be quiet, Dark Matter."  
    Kirby doubted he could really float up that high. Well, it would just be worth a shot. No harm in trying, after all. Kirby inhaled a breath of air, then slowly floated his way up. He flapped his arms like a bird on occasion. He was maybe a tenth of the way up the gorge when he began to get tired. He felt as if he couldn't pass the height he floated to. Flapping his arms furiously and holding a face of determination, he tried to climb further.  
    Kirby had to breath, though. His mouth full of air was forced out of him, and he was sent plummeting back down. This time, he ricocheted off a large, angular rock he had landed on, then onto the rocky bottom.  
    "C'mon! Hurry up! Do you need some electricity to get your butt moving?!"  
    No, no, no, Kirby didn't need that. No, no he didn't. Kirby shook his head, hoping they could see him doing so from how far down he was. Inhaling a breath of air, Kirby attempted to float up once more. He got to the exact same height, then he fell down once more. Kirby tried, again and again to get up the cliffside, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn't get past a tenth of the way up.  
    There were no convinently placed branches growing out of the rock or anything either. It was just a plain, flat, ninety degree angle wall. Kirby had tried to latch onto the wall while he caught his breath, but it was too steep to hold on. Also, he didn't have fingers. That made things significantly harder. Just when things couldn't get more difficult, it seems the Dark Matter were getting annoyed with waiting, and had started to fire bolts of black lightning down at him.  
    Kirby's attempts at dodging were successful, but they had cut how much he was able to go up by at least a half.   
    Only when he had been hit by the electricity for the second time today did the one of the Dark Matters come to retrieve him.  
    He didn't feel well..

 

* * *

  
    They lived within a sort of hidden grove of trees, a clearing that Zero had made themself. Walls of mossy rock lined the place in a U shape, making it a dead end if one were to walk in there from the forest that surrounded. It was a very small clearing, so from the sky, with was basically unnoticeable. Zero had kept a couple of trees there as to make it not be too suspicious as well.  
    Zero was really handy with this whole 'base making' thing. Zero had even dug out a cave in the surrounding rock, making it so that way they weren't exposed to the harsh elements, should it rain. The Dark Matter they had found on this dingy planet rested in the cave as soon as it was hallowed out. Zero tended to stay outside and relax in the sun, come in for the night, then repeat.  
    The light black orb floated down towards the clearing.  
    "I'm back from town! Everybody is still scared of me. Plenty of fear to eat down there."  
    Dark Matter was sing-song about their visit. Fear was one of the tastiest energy one could feed on, in their opinion. Plus, they hadn't done anything wrong like attack someone, just go hang out with Kirby and strike some primordial fear into the hearts of others.  
    "Haha.. That sounds nice.."  
    The fourth Dark Matter choked the words. The lighter cringed. Yeah, this one really wasn't getting any better, were they? They only fed on the passing negativity of non-sentient animals, so they weren't getting the nutrition they needed either. It was concerning. Though Dark Matter knew that if they really needed energy, Zero would just offer some. The white orb drew negativity from the cosmos around it. Zero was never without energy. Though, no amount of food was going to heal this Dark Matter.  
    "You're sounding worse."  
    Their concern voiced, though they didn't go to approach the crippled one. Rather, they turned their attention towards Zero, whose eye was closed, leaning up against the uncarved natural rock in rest.  
    "..You going down and scaring the citizens of that town is not helping us stay 'incognito', Dark Matter."  
    Zero spoke simply and casually.   
    "Well, if things get bad, I guess we could just planet hop.. As much as I don't want to leave Kirby behind.."  
    Kirby was one of the cutest things they had seen on this journey so far. Yeah, most definetly. The idea of leaving Kirby behind, even after only hanging out with him twice, made them want to cry.  
    "Kirby..? Who's that..?"  
    The cripple asked from inside the cave. Whenever they talked, Dark Matter just wanted to hug them. However, no arms. So, no hugs.  
    "Oh he's this cute little pink guy. He's so adorable, like a.. Well, I can't even describe it. He's like an entire different thing of his own. He is just super cute. I'm pretty sure I'm his friend too."  
    "Oh, I was wondering.. The twins were talking about a Kirby while you were gone.."  
    Dark Matter's eye twitched. Something in their mind almost instantly snapped when the injured orb told them of this. Dark Matter looked around the clearing. No, yeah, the twins were nowhere to be seen.   
    "And what were they taking about..?"  
    The lighter asked, trying to hide their broiling rage. They didn't want those two <i>anywhere</i> near Kirby. At all. Not even within a kilometer of Kirby.   
    "Something about.. Uhm.. I think feeding off of-"  
    "That's all I need to know. Thank you, Dark Matter."  
    There were no words to properly describe how much they were going to gut those two. They did, however, know that they were going to start with the eyes. Definitely.  


* * *

  
    Kirby wheezed and huffed. No matter what he did, no matter the activity, these two would always, for some reason or another, shock him. It was when he failed a task or didn't do something fast enough did they shock him. The tasks were nearly impossible for him to do. If he were a Dark Matter like, them, it was easy. But he wasn't. He was Kirby, and he couldn't do anything they asked of him properly. He couldn't win the games they played either.  
    His vision grew fuzzy, his ears buzzed. Bugs or electricity, it was all the same to Kirby. His muscles twitched and twitched. He felt so fried that he could be served up as a dish at Kawasaki's.  
    "Eh, what's wrong Kirby? Takin' a little lie down on the ground?"  
    Nothing. Nothing was wrong. He blinked, his eyelids squeezing shut tightly. Kirby saw why Tiff was trying to get him away from the Dark Matter now. They weren't very good friends at all. He wasn't going to let that deter him from being friends with the lighter one, just because these two were less than nice to him.   
    "C'mon, don't you wanna play?"  
    That was a taunt. Really, just spitting in Kirby's face while he was down. He appreciated it. Really, no, he did. He staggered. He had been shocked into lying down so many times now that he lost count. He couldn't count in the first place, but that's beside the point.  
    Blinking, he shot glares at the two. They didn't react to this at all. If anything, they just seemed more mischievous because of the disapproving stare. Kirby crossed his arms, pouting slightly.  
    "Aw.. Don't be like that."  
    The Dark Matter spoke patronizingly, floating closer to Kirby. Kirby had half the mind to poke them right in the eyeball. He held himself back as to not make a bad impression. He wasn't going to sink down to their level. Sassily, he turned his head away from them, showing off how angry he was. He heard them snicker at this. Did they not take him seriously? He was being serious! Whenever Tiff did this, everyone else took her seriously!  
    "No need to be such a spoil sport."  
    "Yeah, we're just having a bit of fun."  
    "Besides, you kinda,"  
    "Suck at all the games we've played so far."  
    The circled him like sharks.  
    "How about one more game before we go?"  
    Kirby glowered. He shook his head furiously, keeping his pout on and arms firmly crossed. He even dramatically swung his head away from the Dark Matter who had dared to offer such an idea.  
    "No, trust me,"  
    "Us."  
    "It'll be fun!"  
    "Yeah, real fun."  
    No. Absolutely not.  
    "Poyo."  
    Kirby firmly affirmed how much he did not want to play another 'game' with these two. They were no fun. No, no fun at all. Kirby did not want to play! No! He shook his head more. They abused his trust, now he wasn't going to trust them at all!  
    "..Kirby."  
    The sudden dark tone made Kirby tense up. He blinked, shivering a bit.  
    "You'll play with us, won't you?"  
    The crackle of sparks made him want to run as he looked the speaking Dark Matter right in the eye. He would've kept his posture, but he was much too scared of being shocked to do that right now. Kirby stumbled back, tripping over his feet, and landing on his round butt. He covered his eyes for what was to come. He braced.  
    He felt his consciousness slipping as it happened. There were rounds and rounds of the current flowing through his body. His voice was hoarse from crying out so many times before, that all that left him was a pathetic whisper of a scream.   
    His vision went completely white. The feeling had stopped, but he couldn't feel the ground either. He couldn't feel the wind around him, the grass, the air, really, he couldn't feel anything. Did his nerves get completely fried? What was going on? Why couldn't he see? Compared to the electricity, this nothingness.. Well, it was heavenly. Godly. Really, extremely peaceful, if boring.  
    ...  
    Yeah, this was really boring. Was this going to stop?  
    Oh, yes, it did. There we go. His vision faded back in, the same with the rest of his senses. He must've whited out or something. He hadn't moved from the placed he was shocked, and a quick look around told him that the Dark Matter hadn't moved either.   
    They held those same sinister expressions on their 'faces'. Was Kirby in for another visit to the all white place of feeling nothing? He hoped not. Kirby cringed and shriveled under them. Much to his detest, he felt his eyes get misty, then tears gather. He was scared. He was scared of being hurt again. He'd co-operate, he didn't want to get hurt. Everything was just a losing game. He was going to get shocked anyways, but at the very least he could hold it off for a small while.  
    "YOU TWO!"  
    Kirby trembled at the yell. It was familiar. The twins looked towards the yell's source.  
    "Oh, hey, Dark Matter!"  
    "Hope you don't mind us hanging out with your little pink pal-"  
    "Get away from him now."  
    The lighter Dark Matter was here. Oh, thank goodness. He would've jumped for joy if his muscles weren't so abused.   
    "We were just having fun-"  
    "Dark Matter. Be quiet."  
    The two had shut their yaps, noticing how dangerous their sibling— well, Kirby assumed they were the twin's sibling, —sounded. Kirby could see a vicious glint in the lighter's eye. That only happened whenever Kirby was being attacked. Were they going to attack their own siblings for Kirby's sake? He felt kinda honored.  
    "So help me, I will tear you two apart atom by atom. It will be so painful and horrible that you'll be wishing you were in a black hole. I'll make it last longer than a black hole ever would, and I'll get the Boss to help me. Boss has an affinity for Kirby too. I'm sure they wouldn't mind unmaking you, just as I would."  
    "Uh-"  
    "Didn't I tell you to be **quiet**?! Are you trying to make me angry, you worms!? Because let me tell you, you're doing a fantastic job! It makes me only want to make you just as sad and disabled as the Dark Matter sitting back at our camp! Except, maybe, I'll rip off that ring of balls on your backs and more! You'll be left mutilated and worthless when I'm done!"  
    Oh yeah, they were.. Like, really mad. Kirby decided maybe this was the best time to go. He took his leave quickly, only hearing slight bits more of the threats before he was out of earshot. He did, though, hear explosions and what not as he got further and further away. Looking back, those two darker ones were flying around in the air, trying to dodge attacks shot at them from the angrier lighter one.  
    Kirby was thankful. He needed to hang out with them more. The lighter one, that is.


	8. Glatikirby

    "That comes to.. Twenty-nine billion, three hundred forty-seven million, thirteen thousand, eight hundred forty-three D-Bills, Triple D!"  
    The handsome man on the large fold-out television was matter-a-fact and eloquent in his words, showing an old calculator to the two. He had done it quickly and efficiently, as he always did. Escargoon tried his best to not absolutely faint from the taxing price. That was their current debt to Nightmare Enterpises. Their completely and utterly unpaid debt, because King Dedede refused to pay it off when it was small (and even then the number was at least six digits long). Of course, it didn't seem a problem then, who would think it would get to such a big, horrible number? Escargoon felt a heart attack coming on. Or was it a stroke?  
    The man in the purple suit chuckled at the snail's expense, putting the calculator below the camera's view. He held his chin. If it weren't for those sunglasses on his face, he would've been seen staring right at the emperor penguin, hoping for some sort of reaction of the same caliber as the assistants'. Dedede's face did not emote, though. It stayed frozen, out of shock. He hadn't realized how much he had spent until just that moment. Man, how'd he let it get that bad!? Was that garbage Sawyer monster super expensive or something!?  
    "It'd be in my best interest to stop sending you monsters, Triple D. At this rate, we'd have to start using your planet as a dumping ground to pay off all your debt!"  
    He burst into a laugh at the idea, Dedede breaking out of his petrified-like state at the sound. He growled under his breath. He could care less what happened to his planet, but if NME showed up and started dumping on his castle, they were going to have a big angry penguin on their hands. Escargoon knew that anger all too well; he faced it every single day. He would've shivered at the idea of Dedede's castle being used as a garbage dump, but he was busy pretending to be fainted so he didn't have to participate in the conversation.  
    "You keep sendin' me crummy monsters!" He lept from his automated throne with keypad, shaking his fist at the television, "That Sawyer didn't even last a minute before Kirby and his friend beat it into dust!"  
    The representative's expression kept his cheerful, if demeaning look as Dedede accused him. He shrugged, as if it wasn't really an issue in the first place. A light laugh left his lips as he did so.  
    "I'm afraid you can only **afford** the 'crummy' monsters, D-Meister."  
    The two customers could almost taste the underlying contempt in his words. Escargoon more so, as Dedede was oblivious to anything and everything that suggested that someone was only pretending to put up with him. Meta Knight and those two knights were additional proof of that. Escargoon would've kicked those freeloaders out a long time ago, but oh no, they're definitely loyal to the king. Definitely. Absolutely. Escargoon decided he was done with being fainted on the floor, getting back up at this time.  
    "Fine!" Dedede receded back into his chair, "I'll send ya a cheque."  
    The representative raised his eyebrow, a bit skeptical. Escargoon was pretty confused by the statement too. The kingdom didn't nearly have that much money, much less enough to just write into a cheque and send it off to NME. Seeing Escargoon's reaction had sealed it for the purple fellow on the screen, his suspicions being cemented.  
    "You sure you got that much money, D?"  
    Dedede was obviously offended by the gesture. The King Dedede not having immense riches, enough to replace the entire ocean to its shore with gold? The idea was ridiculous! Absolutely outrageous! It's not like he only had a couple thousand left to his name or anything. It's also not like the Cappys only made extremely small sums of money which he taxed them on. Then, suddenly, Escargoon could tell an idea popped into his head from the look on his face.  
    "Heh! Y'know what, I got an idea!"  
    Dedede sounded all too proud of himself.  
    "That's a new one, sire.."  
    Escargoon mumbled, but it did not fail to reach the king's ears. The king himself did not fail to reach his hammer, which he swiftly brought down onto the top of Escargoon's conjoined eyestalk.  
    "Send me one a' yer monsters than can get plenty of money outta them Cappys! Get em wantin' to toss their money at things!"  
    "Sire, let me be perfectly honest with you. If you do not pay off your debt, and I am being serious here, NME will seize control of your planet and actually use it as a dumping ground. It's what we do for customers, like you, who do not pay. Not only that, but I will be unable to send you any more monsters. Are you sure you want to add more onto that debt of yours?"  
    Dedede gulped slightly at the words. But he was certain. He nodded, a sinister smile gracing his face.  
    "And send me a bunch a' monsters i've ordered before! And maybe a couple new ones too!"  
    "..It was a pleasure doing business with you."  
    The screen shut off, the transporter flaring to life. A grin crossed Dedede's face. Not only would he repay his debt, he'd give a show for those foolish Cappys, and destroy Kirby in the process! The plan was absolutely foolproof! Nothing could possibly happen that could prevent this plan from being successful. Nothing at all.  


* * *

  
    "C'mon Kirby! Up and at 'em!"  
    "Poyo..!"  
    Kirby held firmly onto the blanket of his bed, trying to stay inside the warm place. He had slept into the afternoon— and in his own house rather than in Tokkori's nest,— having a rather nice dream about apples. Tugging him out of bed by his little red legs was Sword, one of the Meta Knights. His grip wasn't hard enough to harm Kirby, but enough to keep hold as Kirby squabbled and tried to free his feet.  
    "Blade can ya' 'elp me instead of just standin' there like a buffoon!?"  
    Blade was right inside the door frame, waiting for Blade to get Kirby out of bed. He had figured that the green knight would be able to get Kirby out of bed by himself, and not in an incredibly ineffective way, but he thought wrong. Stepping towards the two, Blade grabbed Kirby by the chest area. Kirby was tugged away from his nice, soft bed, and he poyoed disappointingly as he watched Blade exit the home (with the pink ball in tow). Sword, close behind, closed the door as he left.   
    Kirby normally expected someone like Tuff, or, heck, even Tiff to come and get him like this. This change of people was jarring and new for the pink ball, but it was also like a new flavor of icecream being had instead of the typical old one. Kirby wasn't sure if he liked the taste yet. He let out a small, tired yawn as Blade carried him. Might as well get comfortable. Kirby snuggled up against the knight's less than comforting armor, with the metal squeaking as Kirby did.  
    "Now sir Meta Knight has got a strict trainin' regiment set up for ya, Kirby."  
    Sword began, joining to Blade's side rather than falling behind him. Kirby could tell they were walking down the hill that lead to his house.   
     "Since 'e's a bit.. Eh, wrapped up in 'is duties at the moment, we're gonna have to train ya till 'e's not so busy. Now, we're gon' be focusing on the sword ability until we can figure out how ta get those other abilities of yours out."  
    He continued, Kirby gazed at him drearily. Training? Abilities? Oh the thought, just after he had woken up, made him already feel the ache his muscles would probably be feeling soon. Kirby yawned again, rubbing his eyes. He was hungry, and he didn't like the idea of training on an empty stomach.  
    "Poyo.. Poyo, poyo."  
    He pointed to his mouth, showing that he wanted to eat something before this was to happen.  
    "We got ya some apples back at the trainin' field, Kirby."  
    Oh, okay, yeah that makes things a lot better.  
  
    The field certainly lived up to its name. It was, indeed, a field. A very barren looking field, with a training dummy (stolen from Dedede's guard training room) or two stuck shabbily into the ground. A box of swords stood plainly in the tall, slightly waving grass. It was a nice day for training, even if the wind was hot and the sun was scorching. Sword was currently rubbing a bunch of weird white stuff called 'sunscreen' all over Kirby. Kirby didn't know what it would do, but he waited patiently for Sword to be finished.  
    Kirby felt a bit weird with all the sunscreen on, but Blade had assured him it would feel less weird after it was soaked into his skin. Kirby trusted his opinion, so he didn't complain about it, as much as he wanted to.  
    "Alroight, go suck up a sword 'n lets get on with it."  
    Sword motioned at the box, Kirby stepping to it. He looked through all the different swords he could possibly choose from. They were all the same sort of blade, same color, same hilt, same everything. Kirby was a bit disappointed by the lack of options, but it just made the selection easier. Kirby picked one at random, holding it in his hand. Making sure to not suck up any more than one would be the best idea, so he turned from the box. With one suck and transformation sequence later, he had his little green elf hat back on and a sword in his hand.  
    There was always a bit of whimsy about that transformation sequence. Just a hat appearing out of nowehere and all. Kirby didn't pay it much mind after doing it so much, and neither did the people around him at this point. Kirby swung his sword around playfully and harmlessly.  
    "Alroight, calm down there, tiger."  
    Blade chuckled a bit, Kirby stopping his bit of play to attentively wait and listen to whatever he had to do next.   
    "Now, eh, sir Meta Knight said you did pretty okay the time he fought ya. Which was, eh, what-"  
    "Think it was maybe two or three months ago-"  
    "Yeh."  
    It had been three months since his arrival here? Man, sure time did fly when Kirby was distracted by random things and not training or doing anything productive at all. Kirby didn't even remember fighting Meta Knight before they brought it up.   
    "He says he wants ya to stop falling asleep when you charge your sword beam. Not good for battle and all that if you fall asleep each time. So we'll try to help ya with that. Sound good?"  
    Kirby nodded. Yes, falling asleep did sound good right about now. In fact, Kirby was so diligent and committed to this task that he went right at it as soon as he was told. He sat down, closed his eyes, and fell backwards into the grass with sword still in hand. He didn't have much time to take a nap, as Blade stood Kirby back up.  
    "Roight, none of that, then. 'Ere, focus 'n look at the field."  
    Blade stated. Kirby was a good boy, so he did as he was told and gazed out upon the open field of wild grass. Yup, it sure was grass, alright. Kirby blinked, now trying to focus on the grass. The way it shifted in the wind, the color, the blades individually.. He was almost squinting to catch each and every single detail that he could.  
    Man, his head hurt. He needed a nap. With a quick sit down, Kirby was already feeling much more refreshed from all that focusing on grass.  
    "..I don't think we're gon' be gettin' very far with 'im.."  
    Kirby felt as if Blade's statement wasn't directed towards the pink puff of the three, so he didn't bother to reply. He let his eyelids slide closed as he readied for his nap. Truly, this would be a test of skill and perseverance.  
    "Don't say that! We'll get 'im to use a sword beam without nappin', you don't have any faith!"  
    "Ehh.. If you say so."  
      
    "Sword-"  
    "Don't say 'I told ya so' or so help me, Blade."  
    For the past while now, Sword and Blade were attempting to get Kirby to stay awake to do something. Kirby wasn't sure why, as all he knew was that he was a growing pink blob and he needed his sleep. Sure, he got plenty of sleep already, but better safe than sorry.  
    "Kirby.."  
    Sword gave an exasperated sigh. Was he tired too? Kirby thought he needed a nap or something too. Eyes still closed, Kirby pat the grass next to him as if asking Sword to join him. Clearly, the guy needed one.  
    "Sir Meta Knight did say this would be a daily struggle. Suppose it'll be takin' a couple a' days, or weeks. Once 'e's up 'n around, 'e'll be able to finish what we started 'n all that."  
    Blade consoled the other, tired knight. Was Meta Knight busy being asleep, or something? What did they mean by 'up and around'? Kirby blinked, listening idly.  
    "'E's been pretty stressed about the whole Dark Matter run-in, puttin' some work off of 'im now is a good thing for healin' or whatever."  
    Blade continued. Oh, yeah. Meta Knight got like, really hurt by the Dark Matters. Wait, he got hurt, and Kirby hadn't even visited him yet?! What was wrong with Kirby, being so inconsiderate like that!? Kirby jumped to his feet, poyo-ing anxiously at the two.  
    "Eh?"  
    "Whatcha sayin'?"  
    The two weren't very well acquainted with Kirby's way of talking, he knew that enough. It was because they hadn't spent much time around him in comparison to Tiff or Tuff. Kirby would try his best to communicate to them exactly what he meant.  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby cleared his throat.  
    "Poyo, poyo poyo."  
    In a attempt, Kirby had badly imitated Meta Knight's accent. The two seemed to know what he was talking about instantly.  
    "No, no, Kirby, he can't be havin' too many visitors, he has to rest."  
    Sword insisted. Kirby saw the logic here, he guessed. He doesn't like it when people bother him whilst sleeping either. Kirby nodded, showing he wouldn't bother the knight whilst he was resting. How long was it going to be before he could go bother the blue knight, though? Kirby was shot with worry.  
    "Heeeeyyy! Kirby! Whatcha doin'!"  
    The voice, distant, brought an instant smile to Kirby's face. It was Tuff's, and that usually meant it was time to go play. Maybe they'd do something extra fun today? Kirby poyo-ed to himself, looking around the field to see the boy (along with his usual posse of friends) a ways away.  
    Kirby looked back to Sword and Blade, face seeking their approval. Sword brought his hand to his face, and if he had a nose, Kirby was sure he'd be pinching the bridge.   
    "Eh, let 'im go off, it's been hours now."  
    It's been hours? How long was Kirby out here for? Man, after all that hard work napping, he deserved to treat himself to some fun. Kirby gave a grateful poyo, then ran off to go join his friends. Surely they'd have some games to play or harmless pranks to pull today.  
    Oh, wait. Kirby turned back around, shedding his sword ability and putting the sword he had previously inhaled back into the box with the others. Just a simple reach into his own mouth, and he pulled out the sword. He heard a slight sound of disgust from Blade, forthough he wouldn't understand why Blade would be disgusted.  
    "Yeah, alright, I'm cookin' from bein' outside for so long anyways."  
    "You need me to help ya cool off, then?"  
    Sword chuckled at that.  
    "Sure, you can go buy me an icecream."  
    "That wasn't exactly what I-"  
    "Thanks, Blade! Glad I can count on ya."  
    Kirby didn't know what that was about, but he didn't care too much. The two were still talking as he ran off towards Tuff. Kirby couldn't wait for what the day held. Maybe they'd play a game of kicking the ball around? Or that other game of kicking the ball around? Or that other one?   
    Kirby couldn't wait for it.  


* * *

  
    "Woah.."  
    Tuff was awestruck by the amazing building. It had just appeared out of thin air. It wasn't even here when he went off looking for Kirby, but now, here it was. Just, suddenly, it was here. He was planning on visiting the grocery store to get some snacks, but this thing was on the way, and he couldn't help but stop and look at it.  
    The building itself was large, round in shape. It was like a cylinder, going up in collumns and large, beautiful, forcibly aged stone walls. Of epic proportions, and amazing architecture, no expense seems to have been spared on the building. Statues came out of the walls, statues of warriors and things he wasn't exactly sure of by name. Monsters, angels, devils, mythological creatures, beautiful warrior women, and fearsome warrior men.. Really, he wasn't one for going around and smelling the roses, but these roses smelt of battle, which Tuff was more than happy to stand around and smell it as much as possible.   
    "What is this thing?"  
    The question, rhetorical, he asked to himself. The children around him wouldn't be able to answer the question either, they were just as learnt as Tuff is on this particular sort of thing. Except for Kirby, who knew even less than all of them.  
    "It's called a colosseum,"  
    He noticeably scowled as the annoying voice of his obnoxious sister— of whom he still held his anger for from a argument a couple days prior— rang out. Did she just have to pop up at any time she wanted so she could just rub her dumb booksmarts in everyone's face? How egotistical.  
    "you'd know that if you read a book or two, Tuff. In ancient times, they were used to have two warriors fight eachother for the entertainment of an audience, or the local royalty."  
    He hated that she knew more than him. He just wished he could hide all of her books so that way she could stop being such a rude smarty-pants all the time. Even if she wasn't being condescending, he still boiled with anger with her just talking. She thought she was better than him.  
    Regardless, this was a place of battle? For entertainment? In front of an audience? The idea made his mind rush with the thought of amazing fights, blood pumping action, and heart racing near-defeats. He could watch a real life fight! Not just one on TV that he's seen a million times! Or one with Kirby that's basically destined to be predetermined in Kirby's favor! Something actually new, that wasn't imaginary.. Now that sounded just amazing.  
    "But this has Dedede written all over it! He's obviously up to something, and considering the nature of this sorta thing, I'm thinking he wants to put Kirby in the roster of fighters in there!"  
    Tiff was too worried for her own good. Maybe Dedede was just bored of everything else like Tuff was? Tuff didn't blame him, some things were pretty boring nowadays. Except for those.. Big black orb guys who came by a while ago. That was pretty cool, if not extremely frightening.  
    "You're such a worry wart, sis. Maybe Dedede's bored and wants some cool fights to watch!"  
    "Yeah, ones where Kirby's fighting against ten monsters at once! Tuff, you can't be serious about trusting Dedede not to try and put Kirby in some fight!"  
    The possibility was there, but Tuff was almost offended at the statement.  
    "I'll watch over Kirby, and we'll stay in the audience, Tiff! I'm sure Kirby wants to see some fighting, don'tcha Kirby?"  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby danced around happily, but Tuff wasn't exactly sure that Kirby knew what he was agreeing to. Either way, that was enough to dissaude Tiff from just grabbing Kirby and running back to the castle with him, or whatever Tiff had planned to do.  
    "Well, alright, but I need to be there with you guys to make sure Kirby doesn't get kidnapped by Escargoon or someone while you guys watch the fight."  
    Tuff, struck with invisible offense, felt his eye twitch. His sister thought he was so low to not even notice if Kirby was stolen while he watched the fighting? Well, she was right, but he was still going to be offended by the statement regardless! He kept an insult coiled in his brain as he replied.  
    "If you wanted to join us so badly you could've just asked, Tiff."  
    He let some sass sneak his way into the way he talked. Tiff, easy to get riled up— not much unlike himself— had her face instantly shift into a sort of defensive anger.  
    "I'm not doing this because I want to see two monsters fight! I'm doing this because I want to make sure Kirby will be fine!"  
    "Suuuuure."  
    "Ugh."  
    Tuff couldn't help but feel ever so slightly gleeful from making Tiff angry like that. She kinda deserved it for being a know-it-all. Like a walking dictionary, but a lot more sassing and annoying. Tuff and his friends (and now Tiff) walked around the outskirts of the building. Soon enough, they had arrived at one of the bigger entrances, in which there was a line of people outside of.  
    Everyone already seemed to know what was going on, people were shuffling into the arena's audience entrance. Standing by the doors were two Waddle Dees with spears, helping people into the building in a calm and orderly manner.  
    Getting in line, Kirby got restless. Tuff couldn't blame him, he was pretty excited too. Who would've thought this place would just appear and already have enough warriors in it that it could start the fights immediately?  
    The line took maybe a minute at most to get to the front of. The Waddle Dees looked over the children, before going back to their duty of just standing there and watching the slow line. Tuff didn't really care, he was just excited to get in there!   
    As the kids entered the doorway, they followed some other citizens up a flight of well-lit stone stairs, and up to a new area.  
    The top of the stairs led to a large stadium-like set up. There weren't any particular actual seats, moreso just stone steps slowly leading downwards before cutting off at a decent height around a circular clearing, in where the battles would be fought.  
    Tuff scanned the place for some good seats, easily finding some because of the fact that not all the Cappys of Cappytown had filed into the place yet. He grabbed Kirby by the arm quickly, running over to grab the spot. Tiff and his other friends were close behind, maybe a bit startled by his sudden movement.  
    As soon as he had raced over, he sat himself down uncomfortably against the stone. Would it kill for a pillow or something? Oh well, he'd be watching some fights so it didn't really matter. He'd forget about how uncomfortable he was when he saw the heat of battle. Setting Kirby down next to him, Tiff and the others quickly joined.  
    Tuff vibrated excitedly. The talk of the Cappys, including his friends, was enough to make him squirm with anticipation in his seat. The chatter of the colosseum, of people who didn't know specifically what was going to happen but joined in the activity because their friends were doing it.. The speculation and chatter. It was like someone was dangling a carrot infront of a pig, Tuff being the pig, of course.  
    He looked down at the actual arena part of the arena. It was filled with sand, or maybe some sort of sandy looking dirt. Man, he was going to be seeing cool dust clouds and explosions in there soon enough!  
    A loud, sudden buzz filled the arena. Like the sound of a microphone being turned on. Oh boy, was it going to start? Was it going to start?  
    "Hellooooo Cappytown!~"  
    The announcer's voice was new. It was sauve, smooth as butter, and incredibly enjoyable to listen to. Like, extremely enjoyable. Tuff looked around.  
    "This is weird.. Normally, there'd be a king's booth for, well, the King."  
    Tiff mumbled to herself. Yeah, the entire arena's stands was just for the audience, it seemed. Oh well, maybe Dedede was watching from somewhere else? Maybe he got to see the action up close from down in the pit or something.  
    Tuff spotted someone. No, something. Ontop a flying platform (which hovered above the pit) was a thing. A circular, flat, thing. In fact, it seemed to be coin shaped. No, it was a coin. Ontop a flying platform was a coin. This coin appeared to have a face, but on the other side of it, it was blank. The face was friendly, a welcoming sort of face. It had a small mustache, and its eyes were a soft shade of green. The coin in and of itself being the same color as a penny. It had two arms on each side, totaling up to four overall, black in color, with a white glove on each hand. One of these hands gripped a modern looking microphone. Its legs were short, and of the same black color. Its feet seemed to just be shoes, as the cartoony looking shoes in question were of the same black color. On top of the coin was a small, black tophat. Classy.  
    "My name's Penny Pincher, I'll be your host for today's festivities!~"  
    It- no,  <b>he</b> sounded like a nice guy. Tuff was unsure of his intentions here, or whether he was a monster from NME or just a random weird looking guy (with an equally weird name). Either way, his voice was absolutely entrancing.   
    "Now, I'm sure some of you are wondering what this place is all about, considering we just popped up out of nowhere, right?~ Well, let me explain."  
    Tuff already knew, but he was listening anyways. He wanted to listen to the guy's voice. He didn't even notice Tiff staring at him weirdly.  
    "This place is called The Arena! Here, monsters of all shapes and size battle eachother for the dominating rule of Champion!~ Two monsters enter, one leaves, and then more battles commence to see who is worthy of the title and belt!~"  
    The champion got a belt? That sounded pretty cool! Tuff could almost imagine himself with a big, oversized champions belt around his waist. Man, that'd be amazing! He'd be so cool! Tiff would have to respect him and his authority if he were the champion! Unfortunately, he didn't know the first thing about actual fighting, nor did he have any skill in it.  
    "Allow me to show you today's roster!"  
    The floating platform below him made a click of some sort, as a small camera-like opening showed up on the sides of the disk-like object. The 'camera' glowed to life, and suddenly, a hovering projection of a battle setup was shown. There were maybe around twelve or so monsters on there, some familiar faces as well. There was Ice Dragon, Bugzy, Blocky, Sushi.. Some other guys he couldn't remember the name of were on there too. Plus, there were some new contestants as well.  
    Tuff felt his attention slip on his surroundings. Everything became a blur except for the roster. The warriors who would be fighting for his approval and cheers. The warriors who would be fighting for their lives. He smiled. He smiled because he wanted the games to start, to see the devastation it would bring. To see who was the most powerful of these monsters.  
    He didn't have to listen well to know that suddenly, everyone else in the stadium had become deadly silent. This was normal to him right now. This was a very normal thing to have happen. He didn't even care to acknowledge it any further than he already had as his eyes were locked on the projection. He waited, hoping for the announcer to speak again.  
    "Now, the Arena works in a very special sort of way. You see, we have all these monsters lined up for some lucky fellow to try his or her might against them. The fights go in chronological order, as the challenger fights each monster shown here," He pointed up at the projection's selection of combatants, "with little to no stopping.~"  
    Interesting. Yes, this sounded like a great time. This sounded fair. The coin put his hands down, putting them against his sides slightly as if he were in a sassy stance.  
    "If the challenger is defeated, then the monster who defeats said challenger will become champion. Then, if there are still other monsters around, the new champion will be challenged by the other competitors to see who truly rules. Does that all make sense?~"  
    Tuff nodded. Unbeknownst to him, every single other person sitting in the stands had nodded at the exact same time. How coincidental. Penny Pincher looked around the audience, seemingly looking for something, or someone. Then, his eyes fell upon Tuff. Wait, no, they fell upon the person next to Tuff.  
    "And I can't think of a better first contestant than the most fearsome monster of all.. Kirby!~ What about you, Cappytown? Can you think of anyone better to be the first one to challenge The Arena?"  
    Tuff shouted his rejections at the notion. Kirby was perfect for this! He could fight, he was probably one of the best fighters in Cappytown! Well, aside from Meta Knight. But honestly? That guy seemed really out of his game. He got beat up a lot. Kirby? He got beat up a lot, but he still won every single confrontation he was handed.  
    "I'm glad you all agree!~ Kirby, will you escort yourself down to the pit, please? Oh, and don't worry, we'll have some stuff you can use for weapons down there! We play fairly here!~"  
    Tuff felt the puff next to him get up, then saw him start walking down the stands, through the crowd (who parted for him). Once he was down to the edge of the stands, Kirby puffed up, and disappeared into the pit below. Tuff couldn't see him at the moment because Kirby was just behind the wall. Just a second or two later, Kirby stood in the middle of The Arena's pit.  
    "Now, for audience safety, I'm going to have to ask that you stay seated at all times!~"  
    The futuristic platform's holograph shut off, and suddenly Tuff was now focused on the pit in which Kirby stood. From the part of the disk that Penny Pincher stood on, a small slot slid open, and a remote control floated into the coin's grasp. It was on the same side as the hand that held the microphone.  
    A simple push of a button on the remote and a small, short hiss filled the stadium. A forcefield of some sort had formed inside the pit, cutting off before the walls of the pit, meaning there was a small gap between the walls and the actual fighting. The forecfield only remained visible for a second, a nice, faint green. Then, its light had disappeared as if it had completely vanished.  
    Penny Pincher snapped his fingers on one of his two free hands, and Kirby startled. He looked around, as if he had just been pulled out of a trance. A very, very confused look around lead Kirby to walk around. Then, that lead to him trying to fly out of the pit. The forcefield from before, though invisible, showed its green light on the small spot Kirby had hit inside of it. Man, Kirby really was dumb. When were the fights starting?  
    Another push of a button on the remote, and more than instantly, weapons of all kinds appeared on the circular battlefield. Like they were being teleported in from some strange dimension, or just being created right then and there. Kirby seemed dumbfounded, and even more confused as to what was going on. Did Kirby already forget the rules of The Arena or something?  
    "Suck up any weapon of your choosing, dear Kirby!"  
    The coin invited. Kirby seemed a bit distraught, but he did what he was told. Cautiously, he stepped up to the first weapon he saw, and sucked it up without a second glance at what it actually was. A transformation sequence later, he had gained a special hat of sparking electricity upon his head, as well as a new green hue to his skin.  
    "Ooh, how snazzy! Well, let me introduce you to the first monster of the day, Kirby! It's big and scaly, it can annihilate soldiers from the shadows like a whisper, you won't even see it coming, iiit's Chameleo Arm!"  
    Almost on cue, a large, green chameleon appeared within the battle field, much in the same way the weapons did. Its eyes blinked open and narrowed at the sight of Kirby, making a loud, estranged hiss as it opened its mouth. A battle cry, no doubt. Tuff couldn't help but feel a strong sense of envy for the lizard. How cool would that be? To be that big and that terrifying, and that powerful?  
    Tuff watched the setup intently. He kept his eyes trained on the lizard, rather than Kirby. He wanted to see destruction. He wanted to see something amazingly horrible. Everyone else was here for the exact same reason. He baited his breath.  
    "No more introductions, lets get started!"  
    With a signifying snap of the announcer's fingers, the lizard sprung into action. It launched itself at Kirby, rolling like a wheel to smash into the now green puff. Yes. This is exactly what Tuff wanted to see. This. He wanted to see pain. He wanted to see pain. He wanted to see it. Yes, yes, yes he did. Everyone did. As the hits on the poor opponent connected, the audience cheered.  
    Loud, loud cheering that Tuff and his friends participated in. He clamored with the rest of the Cappys and his sister at the sight of Kirby being absolutely pummeled by the monster. Even as it turned invisible, it continued to attack. It kept going and going. Kirby was no match for it. Really, he couldn't be. There was absolutely no way he could be.  
    There was absolutely no way Kirby was winning this. Kirby was going to lose.  
    As he had focused on the lizard and rather than Kirby, he had seemed to block out the fact that Kirby was fighting hopelessly back against the chameleon. Tuff thought it was hopeless, a stupid gesture, futile at best. Really, Kirby couldn't win. He should just give up. He should.   
    But he didn't. The next minute, the monster fell, twitching and spasming with electricity. Its eyes constricted with sudden horror before it disappeared into an explosion of smoke and stars. A nice, very satisfying explosion like that left Tuff with an overwhelming sense to have the same thing happen again. Hopefully the challenger could defeat more monsters.  
    "Wonderful job!~ Bravo, Kirby!~ That's the first one down!"  
    Tuff clapped at the brilliance of the display. Everyone else seemed to think it was a great show as well, as they were all clapping too. A bright, childish smile graced his face. This was fantastic!  
    A new monster appeared in the arena. The announcer revealed the monster's name, said of their skills, then allowed the battle to commence. With each battle, the challenger's attacks become more and more blocked from Tuff's sight. The monsters were much more interesting. They were like they had been designed in a lab, specifically to cater to looking aesthetically nice and powerful. They were all so distinct.  
    Yet, each one fell. Each and every single one eventually collapsed, exploded, then another would replace it. Sometimes the cause of the explosion would be different than the previous. Sometimes the monster would ignite into flames. Other times it would be sliced in half. One of them was frozen into a block of ice, then shattered (which it exploded upon shattering).  
    "Wow, you've done fantastically!~"  
    The announcer praised. Tuff looked up towards him once more. Were there any more monster for the challenger to take on? Had they won? The announcer let out a small, resigned sigh.  
    "You know.. Allow me to go off topic. Cappytown? I will be honest with you."  
    The announcer plucked the tophat off of his head, and held it infront of him like he were in mourning, or trying to be generally respectful.   
    "The Arena cannot live on without your help."  
    Help? He would do anything. Tuff would do anything. Tuff, yes, he'd do absolutely anything. Anything. Anything. Anything.  
    "So, I, your humble servant, request that you think about donating to The Arena to keep us up and running. For your future entertainment. Any little bit helps! We'll have Waddle Dees coming around with baskets if you want to give us anything to keep us going."  
    Tuff reached into his pocket, pulling out the money he had saved for the snacks at the grocery store. He looked around, spotting a Waddle Dee, then rushing over to it. He, much like everyone else, was desperate to keep this place running. He would do anything. Tuff was nearly trampled by Cappys as he rushed over to the guard.  
    The orange blob had a small, brown weaved basket held. In it, Tuff stuffed his paper money. Others stuffed jewels or rings. But it was mostly money. Then, as soon as he could, he ran back over to his seat before anyone could take it. He was agile. He could get back there in record time. He would trample anyone to get back to his spot. So that's exactly what he did.  
    "Hohoho!~ Many thanks, Cappytown!"  
    Tuff scrambled. His feet pounded against the stone, and if he fell, he'd scratch the stone with his fingernails, then bring himself back up. He would not miss the spectacle.   
    He made it back to his seat.  
    "Now, are you ready for the final battle?"  
    He rallied. An ugly, horrible noise.   
    It's like rapture had come. The final, decisive battle.  
    "That's what we love to hear!~"  
    Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.   
    "Now-"  
    A sudden, loud sound of metal on metal was heard. It wasn't the noise of it being scraped together. Rather, of something metal being pierced. Tuff blinked. He blinked again. Again. The world seemed to be blurry. Like his eyes were out of focus for a really, really long time and he had only noticed just now that he hadn't seen anything properly.  
    Tuff cleared his vision, now. It was fine. Everyone else seemed a bit dazed and confused. Tuff looked to either side of him.  
    "Hey, where's-"  
    He answered his oncoming question by looking down at the pit of the arena. Kirby. Kirby was in the arena. Kirby was in the pit of the arena. How could he have let that happen!? How could Tiff let that happen!? Why didn't anyone stop Kirby from getting in there!? Tuff stood up in his stone seat out of the shock of this new realization.  
    "Kirby!"  
    Tiff cried out, rushing down to the pit. She couldn't hop down there. She'd hurt herself if she did. Maybe she was trying to get Kirby to float out of there, he reasoned. Yes, probably.  
    Tuff then heard the sound of a microphone being dropped through the hidden speakers of The Arena. The reverb was terrible. Tuff had noticed it, the coin monster, had dropped its microphone. Then, it dropped a remote it was holding. Below the coin monster's moustache, the pointy end of a sword had placed itself. The monster had been impaled from the back. It stood there, absolutely paralyzed as it looked down at its wound.  
    "A.. Aa.. Aha.."  
    Tuff couldn't help but twinge at the noise the microphone picked up. It had a weird chuckle at the fact it was probably about to explode like all the other monsters did. He felt almost bad for the thing, with the way its eyes were wide in absolute terror. Almost being the key word.   
    With one of its free arms, it gripped the blade, as if testing it were there. Then, without moving too much from its position, palmed around and found the microphone it had dropped. After picking that up, it picked the remote back up as well. Its arm was unsteady and shaky.  
    "It appears as i-if.. We're going to need to skip introductions..~"  
    It kept its eyes glued on the sword as it said that. Much like its arms, its voice was lacking that smooth as honey quality it previously had in copious amounts. A quick press of a button or two on the remote it had in its hand, and a creature appeared in the pit of The Arena with Kirby.  
    A single Waddle Dee stood opposing Kirby.  
    "That's a bit anti-climatic.."  
    Tuff murmurred to himself, rushing down to the edge of the audience seating arrangement to meet his sister. She stood at the edge of the seating, right before the large outcove that the pit was.  
    "Blade, yer a terrible throw."  
    "Sword, I have an icecream in my hand. What did you expect?"  
    "I 'unno, for you to put it down before you went to throw your sword at it?!"  
    "Ah, whatever. Did what it was supposed to do."  
    The familiar voices of the two knights came from right behind him. Turning to see, yes, Blade indeed did have an icecream in his hand. And, judging from the convenient conversation timing, Sword had been the one to throw his sword into the coin monster. Tuff was pretty happy to see them. Maybe they could form a ladder to get down to Kirby?  
    Well, they could figure out a plan in as much time as they wanted. Right now, Kirby was being chased around by a Waddle Dee, so it's not like the situation was dire.  
    "Kids, we need ya help."  
    Oh, sweet. Tuff smirked at Sword's words. He would love to help them! It'd be so cool!  
    "Kirby! Keep runnin'! It's gonna getcha!"  
    Blade yelled out across the pit, making Kirby run even faster, poyo-ing all the while as he ran from the Dee. Sword smacked the other knight upside the head whilst said knight chuckled from his cruel shout.  
    "We need ya to get the remote from Penny Pincher."  
    Sword picked up a rock from the stand's cracked flooring, throwing it down into the pit. It collided with the forcefield, making a loud cracking noise before the rock burst into flames. Yeah, that.. Didn't seem good if someone touched it.  
    "This forcefield is probably controlled by that remote, n' whatever else in this place is controlled by it too. Blade is too fat for me to throw-"  
    "Hey!"  
    "so I need to throw one of you up onto Penny Pincher's platform."  
    Nice alliteration. All Tuff did was nod, and Sword picked Tuff up by the seat of his pants.  
    "Hey. Give me yer icecream before you throw 'im. That's a child."  
    "Alright, alright.."  
    After an exchange of items into different hands, Tuff was now held with both of Sword's hands. With a slow exhale from Sword, Tuff was steadied, then flung at the sci-fi platform like a ball. He yelled, partially out of fear, mostly out of surprise.   
    The fates had smiled upon him this day, and he had stuck the landing. He had landed behind Mr. Dapper Coin, the handle of the sword that was stuck in it turned towards Tuff. The monster had not turned to greet Tuff, but he was pretty sure it knew he was there. Man, it's hands were a lot bigger than he expected them to be. It gripped onto that remote pretty tightly.. What was he supposed to do?  
    He turned his sights on the sword handle. Black. It was a decent sized sword. Tuff held out his hand, ghosting the handle. If he.. If he destroyed the monster, he could get the remote. Really, really easily. No, he couldn't do that. That's a job for Sword or Blade. They could do that. That's not Tuff's job. Even if it was just a monster. Just get the remote, Tuff..  
    He sneakingly pinched the end of the remote (that wasn't covered by the monster's hand) and slowly but surely wiggled it out of the gloved hand. That was.. Surprisingly easy. Then, Penny Pincher fell to its knees, rocking the entire platform forward. It flung Tuff into the air from how quick it was, and the whole fact that it was kinda like a se-saw.  
    Tuff was being launched right into the pit.  
    While the forcefield was up.  
    It took him a millisecond to realize what his fate was about to be.  
    He screeched like a banshee. Like a girl. Like a baby. Like something else that's screams were easily identifiable and loud.  
    Not right before he was going to dive face-first into the pit, he was tackled from the side. Like he was playing football and he was running into the endgoal, someone had blindsided him and knocked him away from it. His head spun suddenly before he was caught by someone.  
    Tuff didn't realize he had squeezed his eyes closed. He also didn't realize that he had teared up from fear. Whoops. He wiped his face with the hand that wasn't gripping the remote.  
    Oh, it was Tiff that had tackled him. She was currently death hugging him. Blade must've thrown Tiff at him to knock him out of the air, and off of the course of vaporization. Well, at least he wasn't like.. Being electrocuted and burned.  
    "Sis-"  
    "Be quiet, Tuff. I thought you were gonna.."  
    ..Yeah.  
    Tuff and his sister were put onto the ground, where Sword took the remote. He had scanned it over, pressed a couple things on it, then the forcefield sparked and hissed. With that, it faded. Another test rock was thrown, and it passed through into the now open pit.  
    "Kirby, you can get out of there now!"  
    Tiff shouted to the pink puff because he was on like, the opposite end of the pit from her. Kirby, trailed fiercely, floated his way out of the pit. He ran briskly over to the group before jumping into Tiff's arms. He gave her a big hug, as if he had been away for years and this was the first time he had seen her again. Tiff was more than happy to give him a big ol hug in response.  
    "You kids get goin'. We're gonna deal with-"  
    There was a loud, metalic clang. Looking towards the noise revealed that Penny Pincher had fell from its platform and into the now cleared out stands. Face first. Ouch.  
    "-gettin' rid of that guy. Blade, icecream, please."  
    Sword received the soft frozen milk treat from the other knight and promptly walked towards the coin monster. Yeah, Tuff supposed there was no reason to hang around. So, he followed his sister. He followed her towards the exit of the stands.   
    Tuff looked back, briefly.  
    Then, forward once more.  
    The sound of metal on metal. An explosion followed.  
    It made him wince. It was a harsh, cruel noise. He couldn't describe why, but he never wanted to hear that noise ever again. He let the sound of his feet on the stone clear his thoughts. Maybe he'd go to the grocery store and go get those snacks he had planned to get? Yeah, that'd be good. Tuff checked his pockets, wanting to double count his cash. He needed to make sure he had enough for the chips he wanted.  
    "Wh!? Hey, where'd all my money go?!"  


* * *

  
    "Hmm.."  
    Dedede stared at the screen, anxious. The salesman was looking down at something, looking off to something that wasn't on the screen, then back down again. It had been like this ever since he sent all the donated money to him, which was maybe a minute or two ago. There was a little click, click, click from the televison. The salesman was typing something out on a keyboard.  
    "Well?! What's takin' ya so long!?"  
    He really wanted to hear that he had gotten enough money to at least pay off a few million of his debt.  
    "You sent me plenty of jewels, D-Meister. I'm sending them to have them appraised right now. But with all the gold and paper money you've given NME, your debt now comes to a total of one million, one hundred nine million, four hundred eighty-three thousand, two hundred twenty-seven."  
    Dedede gave a hearty laugh, looking off to his assistant snail. As soon as the gaze was met, Escargoon began to laugh heartily, probably out of relief. That new number was amazing! Really, just, absolutely beautiful!  
    "I told ya my plan would work!"  
    He shoved Escargoon with his elbow playfully.  
    "I never should've doubted you, sire!"  
    He loved to hear that praise.  
    "I will be able to tell you your new total by tomorrow. It's a pleasure to continue doing business with you."  
    "Yeah, I know it is! Don't need to keep tellin' me that!"  
    Another laugh before he turned off the communication. Today had worked out extraordinarily well. Sure, he hadn't destroyed Kirby or anything.. But he had more wiggle room to try now. And no matter how many scary eyeballs came by, he would clobber Kirby. He would clobber Kirby. No matter what.  
    Another laugh.  
    Escargoon was getting concerned at how much laughing there was.


	9. Glatikirby: Postproduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Filler. Skip if you desire.

    The Arena's staffing had been cleared out a couple hours later. Blade was busy finding every Waddle Dee he could and ordering them to leave. They obeyed, naturally, as that was the Waddle Dee way when it came to authority. There was one Waddle Dee that wouldn't listen, however. The one that was apparently the one who had 'fought' Kirby. That individual thought themselves to be the champion of The Arena because Kirby had technically forfeited. Sword thought it was cute, Blade thought it was a little bit annoying.  
    Sword figured that having at least one member of staff tending to this place would be fine. Originally the knights had conspired to absolutely demolish the building, but had thought against it once traversing the inner hallways. It was such a beautiful place that neither of them could bring themselves to destroy it. At least Dedede had a good decorative architect on this case.  
    Not only was it so great in design, it would also be very, very useful. Having no previous official place to train Kirby wasn't much of a problem, but The Arena seemed much more professional than a field or a chasm. Plus, it was in town and that meant the knights didn't have to walk as far from the castle to get to it. Sword very much appreciated that fact.  
    All the doors in this place were wooden, generally frail to keep the allusion of some ancient colosseum. Most of the doors didn't have locks, but a lot of them were hospitable to jamming or not moving at all. One of these doors was the one that lead to— what Blade figured was— the room with all the actual technology in it. The thing that made the forcefield, the thing that teleported monsters and weapons into the pit and whatnot.  
    "Jammed?"  
    Sword's question was rhetorical. Blade simply kept trying at the door, making no headway. He became more forceful with the handle as his attempts turned up fruitless.  
    "Here, lemme.."  
    Blade moved away, stopping his attempts. Sword's legs were stronger than Blade's, so if any door kicking were to happen, Sword was the one to do it. With a swift couple of kicks next to the handle of the door, it gave way. It had, indeed, hidden the technology room.   
    The cold blue metal, futuristic and advanced was juxtaposed against yellowish bricks of stone. Along the ceiling of the room ran tubes and wires, black in color and perfectly weaving through eachother. On the ground, similar wires were around, but very few in comparison. In the center of the room was a transporter, and pushed off to the side was a desk which kept a computer running with two monitors. Adjacent to the desk was a box latched to the wall, much like a circuit breaker in design.  
    Blade had approached the box first, opening it up. It wasn't a circuit breaker.  
    "We've got our forcefield generator 'ere."  
    He closed the box up once more before making his way over to the computer. Blade was a lot better with software than Sword was. Blade was such a nerd sometimes when it came to how programs and all that worked. He talked in jargon and some sort of language that Sword sometimes could just barely understand— and that was on the days that Blade decided he would be coherent with his explanations.  
    "Password protected, 'a course.."  
    Oh boy.  
    "I'll need to get back to the castle 'n get somethin' to get rid of that password. I haven't done any crackin' in a while. It probably ain't too important to get into it anyways."  
    Oh well, no use in crying over a pickle jar that you couldn't get open by yourself. Blade would crack that egg open eventually, just had to give him a day. For now, it was time to deactivate everything in this room. The transporter would be first. The two knights knew that NME was able to teleport any monster using any transporter. Even if it wasn't manufactured by them. And telling by the design of this particular transporter, it was made by them. So, it was in their best interest to take out anything that could start this thing up.  
    "Ya ready for some scroungin' now that you're done pokin' at that computer, Blade?"  
    A 'tch' of humor was all Sword needed to hear. Ah, the two haven't 'scrounged' in a long time. Since they were bandits, actually. They'd go off and find transporters or any other machine, break it down into its key components, and sell it off to vendors. Sometimes they'd even sell the parts back to NME. It was a great business.It was nice to have some honest money ontop of all the stolen money they got from being, well, bandits.  
    Sword got down to the base of the transporter, beginning to unscrew some of the screws that held a particular piece of metal closed. He used his sword because he didn't have a screwdriver on hand, but he had done this plenty of times before using his sword or sharp, small pieces of metal. He wasn't exactly without skill in doing so.  
    Blade went off to do the other side, a tad bit slower than Sword in his work. Just a tad.  
    "Jus' like old times, WolfWrath comin' 'round, dismantlin' transporters.."  
    Blade was off talking to himself. Yeah, it was like a trip down memory lane as of late. Meta Knight getting concussed and horribly injured was a new thing, though. In that way, it wasn't entirely a smack of deja vu.   
    "We'll be tellin' Sir Meta Knight bout this place, yeah?"  
    Sword knew the answer already. He got the plate off of the transporter, placing it off to the side.  
    "Mhm. All the weapons 'ere are gonna be plenty useful for when he's eventually back in the saddle wantin' to train Kirby. Plus, better here than in some chasm or somethin'."  
    Yeah. No dangers of falling rocks in The Arena.  
    A weird silence lingered as Sword searched around in the interior of the transporter. He needed something specific out of it to get it to stop working. It was a tiny little box with a blue, blinking light on it. It was what communicated with other transporters and allowed the transporter to, well, transport stuff. However, as it seemed that this transporter was special in the fact that it could teleport to specific co-ordinates, Sword figured that it might not be the same.  
    "Found it."  
    Blade announced, waving the tiny box in question. Well, at least no monsters from NME could be getting through it. That's good enough. Blade tossed it over to Sword, who pocketed the tiny box as soon as he caught it.  
    "We should go get more icecream."  
    Yes, fantastic idea, Sword.  
    "Sword, I don't have any money on me. And plus, by 'we' you mean you."  
    Sword got up from his position on the floor. Blade did the same as the two exited together.  
    "I can't help myself, we didn't even have the stuff back home! It was way too hot for anything like that to even exist!"  
    His home planet was really, really hot. Like, lava everywhere sorta hot. Icecream was but a mere fantasy or work of fiction that didn't exist. No one would even conceptualize cold treats. It was simply improbable. Never crossed any inventor's mind.  
    "Y'know, for being from Halcandra, ya sure complain about being hot a lot."  
    Blade came from the same place as Sword. Yet, somehow, Sword was always one to complain about heat. Blade would never say a single word about it.  
    "I've gotten used to Popstar temperatures.."  
    Sword defended, a bit sheepish.  
    "Besides, icecream tastes good! You can't blame me for likin' it! What's your deal, eh?"  
    "I just don't like it, is all."  
    "Blade, have you even tasted it?"  
    "..No."  
    "Blade! How can ya go sayin' you don't like somethin' if you haven't even tried it!"  
    "It just doesn't look very appetizing to me."  
    "Blade you **need** to try it. It's not a choice no more."  
    "Sword-"  
    "No buts."  
    "You're payin', then. Since I don't have any money on me."  
    "Alright, alright."  
    An awkward silence hung for a couple of seconds. It threatened to make the two walk the rest of the way out of The Arena in complete silence.  
    "Y'know, Blade.."  
    Sword began, suddenly feeling a bit sentimental. Blade didn't look his way, the two just looked straight ahead.  
    "I'm happy you're my friend 'n all that."  
    "Eh? That was sudden. I'm happy you're my friend too, Sword."  
    Behind his mask, Sword gave a light smile. Well, time to go tell the angsty blue spanish orb about The Arena. After getting some icecream, of course.. Meta Knight could wait for a couple more minutes to hear some news.


	10. There's A Snake In My Mask!

    Escargoon never thought he would see the day. The stolen jewels from a couple days ago had been appraised and had cut down Dedede's debt by a couple million. What had happened next really stunned him, though. King Dedede had looked around the castle for anything valuable, grabbed it, then brought it down into its core materials. Gold statues were melted down into their liquid form, then let harden into sheets of gold. The Waddle Dees had done it all though, really. Dedede just gave the order. For the snail, he was more than happy to not have so many statues of Dedede around. Just having the real thing was enough. Plus, polishing those things two times a week was not his most favorite chore to do.  
    The gold sheets were currently being loaded onto the transporter to NME, taking many a Waddle Dee to execute this process. Escargoon was just watching in stunned silence at the King's sudden pro-activeness. The fact that he was actually making an attempt to pay off everything was just a baffling concept. He glanced at the King, sat in his throne. The penguin had a look on his face as if he were trying to figure out how to feel about this. He was as inexpressive as a dead fish, and his eyes were just as glazed over as one as well. Escargoon had seen this look maybe once before in his service to Dedede. It was when he first started doing business with NME.  
    It was before he had ordered his first monster. When he had a television installed in his room in order to have a security feed handy, and for have something to watch. Somehow, someone at NME had managed to find this television signal and 'intercept' it, allowing transmission between the company and Dedede. The salesman— the same one they've been dealing for the past couple of months now— was able to convince Dedede to take up deals with the company. It was out of pure boredom that Dedede had agreed, of course. Not out of anything purely malicious. He just wanted to cause a little havok on the Cappys for fun, then be done with it all, Escargoon was sure.  
    Then, as soon as the salesman had finished talking to Dedede, when the screen turned off, Dedede got that dead-eyed expression on his face. The same one he had now. Escargoon had asked about it then, and though it took Dedede a moment, he had responded with a simple "just thinkin'" and that was the end of it. The way the gaze managed to seem akin to a soldier's PTSD ridden stare unnerved and concerned the assistant. As much as Dedede was a buffoon who caused him trouble to no end, such a shift felt horribly alien and terribly wrong. Even if the snail knew that Dedede had nothing but a life of luxury, free from tragedy or anything that could cause pain, he worried.  
    Escargoon noticed how he was just staring at the King for way longer than what was considered decent. He snatched his gaze away right as he saw Dedede's eyes shift to meet the stare. Oh, he got really lucky there. Instead, Escargoon looked towards the suited man on the television. Ugh. Escargoon hated how dashing and official he looked. Really, just resented it.   
    The television had a camera on it in which allowed the suited man to see Escargoon's brow ever so slightly furrow. There was no response, the toothless smile stayed soft on the man's face as he waited silently. The only thing that could be considered a reaction was the man adjusting his sunglasses. Oh god, his sunglasses. Escargoon had a pet peeve for people who wore sunglasses all day, all night, and indoors. He simply couldn't stand how stupid it was.  
    Finally, all the gold sheets had been loaded onto the transporter. With a simple press of a button, they were off in a flash of light, lasers, and electricity.  
    "Allow me to put you on hold while we weigh these bad boys, Triple D."  
    "Yeah. Be snappy about it!"  
    Dedede waved his hand nonchalantly at the television before it fizzled to a image of the monster company's logo on a simple background. A hum of impatience left the king as he slouched, putting his elbow on an armrest and his cheek in his palm.  
    A small, surely-to-be-obnoxious-if-you-listened-to-it-long-enough waiting jingle played from unseen speakers. It was something akin to elevator music, bot not quite. Escargoon let out a soft sigh, looking back at the penguin's face. He didn't look like he had been through a horrible war anymore, so that was good. He was a bit irritated, but the snail preferred that over the blankness it previously harbored.  
    The hold wasn't for too terribly long. In fact, it was probably maybe a minute at most. Very quick.   
    "Well, you're in the green, King D!"  
    It was so good to hear those words.  
    "Good! I wanna buy somethin'!"  
    It felt so bad to hear those ones.  
    "You got any eh, stuff that can make me real good at fightin'? I wanna be clobberin' Kirby real personal-like since the monsters don't seem to be doin' it!"  
    Despite insulting the products, the salesman still seemed chipper. Not a single falter of the man's expression.  
    "I want it to be makin' me look real cool too!"  
    A childish grin of amazement crept then latched itself onto Dedede's face. It was still weird how the penguin king had teeth. Very, very weird.  
    "I have just the thing for you, D," the salesman pulled up a magazine, already flipped to a particular page and pointed to one of the images, "this here is one of our Metal Masks. Their state of the art-"  
    "Skip all that! How's it make me powerful if it's just a garbage can lid with some eyeholes!"  
    The mask on the magazine paper did not, infact, look like a garbage can lid with eyeholes. In fact, it seemed handcrafted and sleek. Like it had been worked on in an old forge by a blacksmith, rather than some sod or a robot in a factory.  
    The salesman laughed his stupid laugh.  
    "This isn't just some ordinary mask, D. It's possessed by the soul of an old, vicious warrior from ancient times. Putting it on allows you to channel the spirit's fighting power and skill into your own."  
    "Now see here, I don't believe in no ghosts!"  
    An awkward silence swept the room. Did. Did he really forget about that one time a real, actual ghost from NME came in for debt collection..? Even the salesman raised an eyebrow at the king's stupidity.  
    "Sire, we've sent a ghost to your kingdom in the past to repay your debt."  
    "That's a different sorta ghost! This here you're tellin' me has a ghost inside the dang thing! How's that possible?!"  
    Escargoon needed a drink right about now.  
    "I can't tell you how NME does it specifically, D. Company policy."  
    Dedede let out a loud groan. Escargoon didn't know what he expected as an answer.  
    "Regardless, this mask will make you twice the fighter you were before, your majesty. If you want to play hands-on, this is the item for you."  
    "Alright, send it over."  
    Wait, was he really not going to question the product anymore than that? Granted, he usually didn't question anything NME gave him before, so this really wasn't a surprise. Still, Escargoon had hoped he would continue on this good streak of wondering what the finer details of things were. Even if those finer details made him look like an absolute idiot for not knowing what they were. It was progress compared to the usual, he guessed..  
    With that, the transporter crackled and sparked to life, and the man disappeared off the television screen.

* * *

  
    "Look Kirby, we're sorry about what we did, alright?"  
    "Boss and Dark Matter gave us a real talking to for doing that to you, we won't do it again."  
    Kirby relaxed at the words, but still didn't move from the safety of being behind Tiff. She stood her ground— she was equally if not more scared than Kirby, however,— she crossed her arms and glared at the twin Dark Matter. She didn't know what the two had done (he hadn't bothered her about it), but was still protective of Kirby regardless. He knew she didn't like them one bit, still.   
    Kirby, Tiff, Tuff, and the other kids had been playing ball in a general little area in town before the interruption. The game had been paused because the Cappy children hadn't really gotten used to the alien's presence and ran out of fear.  
    When the two had caused the other kids to run just by intruding, he saw her face darken and take on disgust. She even closed her mouth. As far as Kirby knew, Tiff hadn't even met these two but she already disliked them. Kirby wasn't sure why she would automatically associate them as bad people despite this being their actual first meeting. Was it because of the way they came into town? Kirby didn't think so.  
    "I don't know what you two did," Tiff began, "but judging from Kirby's reaction, it couldn't have been anything good! You don't even sound sincere, either!"  
    The twins looked at eachother, then directly at Tiff.  
    "Listen kid. Me and Dark Matter aren't the most apologetic of things out there."  
    "If Boss never talked to us about it, honestly, we wouldn't have even felt guilty."  
    They're doing that weird thing where they know what the other one is going to say or talk about next.. Kirby wondered how they managed to do that. Magic, maybe?  
    "We've realized that what we did was wrong and we should feel bad for doing it. Isn't that enough?"  
    Tiff's eyes narrowed at the question. Kirby felt her hand rest on his head in a protective manner.  
    "No! I don't trust either at you at all! Sir Meta Knight's stuck in a bed because of you two, and now you're here hurting and scaring Kirby too! I don't wanna hear anything you have to say!"  
    Tiff was practically yelling at the two. Kirby was half-heartedly glad he wasn't on the receiving end of the yell, as he had his fair share of Tiff's lectures in the past (though they were a lot more gentle and patient sounding).  
    "If you were really sorry, you'd apologize for hurting Sir Meta Knight too!"  
    A silence swept for a second, then was interrupted by the slight bristling on the Dark Matter's backs. The twins did not look happy about that comment whatsoever. Their pupils had slightly constricted, eyelids closing to a point where they looked incredibly displeased with what they had just heard. They looked like two retail workers who got told some customer was causing trouble.  
    Kirby wasn't sure on where she heard that Meta Knight was stuck in bed from. Maybe she went to visit him? Kirby didn't get to visit Meta Knight but she did? That's not fair..  
    "We're not going to apologize for something we're not sorry for."  
    "He deserved it."  
    "We did it in self defense."  
    "He's not as valorous as you'd think, especially not towards our kind."  
    Kirby heard Tiff growl. Actually, legitimately growl. Like an animal would. Or a monster. Kirby was getting really worried about this whole thing, but he was kinda too scared to face Tiff's wrath if he got in the middle of the conversation.  
    "Well, if he doesn't like you, I'm sure he has plenty of reason not to! Sir Meta Knight protects everyone from monsters, and if he's attacking you, it must mean you're monsters too! And I haven't forgotten how one of your siblings threatened me! You guys are too dangerous to be around Kirby or Cappytown in general!"  
    Her voice became shrill. Kirby felt her hand tremble slightly on the top of his head before closing up and departing from him.  
    "Sorry to tell ya, kid, but we aren't leaving any time soon."  
    The one spoke, voice of smugness and slight disdain.  
    "Sis, maybe you should cool it a bit.."  
    Oh yeah, Tuff was still around. Just watching his sister yell at the twins, like a supportive brother would. Tiff, after taking a quick look at her brother, steadied herself and calmed down. She had uncurled her hands from near fists and laid them at her sides. Kirby could still see her face held that same angry expression, despite relaxing.  
    "Well, I don't want to see either of you around Kirby."  
    Kirby poyoed in surprise at this. Not being allowed to see the twins again? But they said sorry! Yeah, they were still scary, but he'd get over that as he got to know them better. That decision didn't make any sense to him.  
    "Alright then."  
    The simple reply shocked both Tiff and Kirby. Tiff probably moreso because of the fact that they agreed than anything. Kirby was shocked due to the fact that suddenly, he had his ability to visit two of three of his orb friends just suddenly ripped from him.   
    The twin's expressions grew lighter, which was nice, yes, but Kirby was still reeling from the realization of not being allowed to see them again. His following poyos were loud, he tugged on Tiff's arm like a child who didn't get his way. Which, really, is exactly what he was. Tiff shifted her palm to hold Kirby's stub so that way he would stop tugging on her. It worked.  
    "Poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby begged. He begged for her to reconsider her statement. She was just looking out for him, yes, but they said they were sorry! There's no reason to hold a grudge against them anymore if they apologized! Tiff sighed at his plead.  
    "Kirby, I just don't think you should be friends with these guys! They're pretty evil."  
    Evil? Kirby didn't think so.. Kirby didn't think anyone was evil, really. Everyone deserved a chance (if not multiple if the first chance is dashed). Everyone deserved to be his friend. No one was pure evil. No one.  
    "Hey. We take offense to that."  
    "Just because we feed off people's suffering doesn't mean we're evil, kid."  
    "It's pretty awful to paint a picture of all Dark Matters just based off us."  
    "Bigoted, too."  
    Kirby didn't know what the word 'bigoted' meant, but Tiff seemed to get mad at the mention.  
    "I'm not holding it against you as a species, I'm holding it against you two as thinking people! You act evil! You act like monsters! Every single one of you that I've met has! I have reason to think you guys are evil!"  
    The two scoffed.  
    "Yeah, alright,"  
    "Whatever you say, kid."  
    Tiff, face now red from rage, looked as if she were about to yell at the two again. Kirby tugged on her hand more, which calmed her down. She placed her free hand on her brow, partially covering her eyes.  
    Kirby took his stub away from her hand and went to pat her side for comfort. She lightened slightly at the gesture, but still seemed pretty unhappy. Kirby figured as she was taking this time to calm down, he could go talk to the twins himself. There was some unresolved things between the puff and the orbs, and he figured he should straighten it out.  
    He waddled up to the two, cautious, but he knew they weren't going to harm him anymore. At least, he hoped not. No, he couldn't think that way. They said sorry, they wouldn't do it again. He didn't need to hope that they wouldn't hurt him. He knew they wouldn't. Kirby thought he heard Tiff say something as he left her side, but he just sorta disregarded it.  
    Kirby opened his mouth. However, before any feasible words could escape him, something happened. It wasn't something he expected, of course. No one seemed to expect it, actually. From behind one of the Dark Matters, a hammer was poised and raised. Then, just as quickly as said hammer appeared, it swung much like a golf club on a unsuspecting ball.   
    There was a crack, the same noise that some sort of horrible thunder would make, as the hammer collided with the side of one of the twins. The two had been floating side by side, so when one was hit, the other was taken with (if for a shorter distance). Those two were not the only ones propelled, though. A force, perhaps, a shock-wave, even, blew Kirby off of his feet and smacking into Tiff.  
    Confused, Kirby didn't even have time to poyo before he realized that the same hammer that had smacked the twins away like Tuff smacking away Kawasaki's cooking was now aimed to smash down on him. Not just him, actually, but Tiff as well. But in his simple glimpse, he caught everything. He caught who wielded the hammer.  
    Dedede, penguin king and ruler, was now adorned with a metal mask. Kirby's mind would've drawn parallels to Meta Knight's mask if he wasn't so busy scrambling away from the metal hammer that missed him and Tiff by centimeters. Though Kirby's scramble did not end up saving him from the king's swift kick. Which, Kirby noticed, did not propel him backwards. Rather, it moved him up into the air.   
    Kirby's face received the same treatment as a baseball did when it met a bat. Another thundering crack, and Kirby was sent into the distance. His sight was blurry and he could feel his body screech in pain, but Kirby forced himself to hang on. He could do this, and stop the king. Kirby faced worse abuse in The Arena, he could definitely somehow stop the king. He wasn't acting like himself at all, and Kirby had a pretty good feeling as to why.  
    Kirby landed with a skid on one of the town's dirt paths, dust kicking up as he managed to land on his feet. An amazing feat. Yet, despite how far Kirby was sure he went, the puff noticed how just in the distance, Dedede was heading straight towards him. Dedede looked like he was going faster than his car could ever possibly dream to take him.  
    A poyo of surprise and fear escaped Kirby as he dashed, determined to get away from the King to maybe get somewhere safer so he could fully figure things out. Tiff or Meta Knight weren't around to tell him what to do, and that meant he was without instruction at all. He'd be entirely on his own for this battle. Unless Tiff somehow managed to catch up with him and Dedede, that is.  
    But considering how Kirby was going as fast as he could and Dedede was still gaining, that probably wasn't going to be happening any time soon. Kirby felt the air behind him tense, and he jumped, fumbling. Behind him, Dedede had brought his hammer down so hard onto the ground where Kirby was that a impact crater formed underneath the weapon.  
    Dedede rested for a moment, and Kirby went to panic immediately. He braced himself, then began to inhale. The small tornado of his inhale wasn't phasing the king as he recovered from the exercise, though. Kirby just kept trying to inhale the hammer or the mask, hoping to disarm Dedede rather than eat the king himself.  
    In the past, Dedede had shown himself to be not heavy enough for Kirby's suction ability to whip up into the pink ball's mouth. However, now, Dedede stood tall and firm, not even skidding towards the puff at all. It's like he was a gigantic ship that had finally anchored itself after being thrown around by dangerous waters, and stood stoically unmoving against the tide.  
    Dedede raised his weapon, it sparking to life with flames of bright orange. The flames whipped in the wind, but enraptured the entirety of the mallet in waves. The king reeled, like he was charging his next attack. Like he planned for this one to be the fatal decider of battle. Kirby stopped, not out of his will, but out of exhaustion. He panted, wheezing slightly.  
    Dedede moved towards the toddler, positioning himself for the most effective swing he could possibly have. Before the blazing mallet could collide with Kirby's soft pink flesh, however, an orange ball rocketed itself at the side of said weapon. It was shot at such a high velocity that it was ripped out of the king's hands, and sent through the window of a nearby building. Kirby saw the blaze of fire dissipate as soon as Dedede lost his grip on it.  
    "Aw, that's no fair, Dark Matter! You're skewing it in your favor!"  
    "Well, I'll stop interfering with it now. I just wanted payback for him hitting us. Plus it's actually fair now."  
    Kirby turned skyward. Sure enough, the twins were there. Were they watching him run from Dedede? Well, thank goodness they decided to chip in then. They had managed to get the hammer out of the penguin's hands too. Kirby jumped to his feet, and jumped through the broken window, tumbling into the home. It was a living room, most certainly. The hammer had snapped a small table by landing smack into the center of it.   
    Kirby pulled on the hammer, so the he may use it himself. Then he thought back to The Arena. He was told to suck up weapons, and when he did.. He got abilities from said weapons. Kirby squinted at the hammer. He remembered a hammer being one of the weapons in the lineup he had access to. Did that mean if he sucked this up..? Kirby could hear Dedede trying to fit through the window.  
    He didn't have any time for question. He inhaled, making the furniture in the room threaten to fly into his mouth. The metal hammer rattled, then gave way from the table it had landed on. It dragged into Kirby's mouth, and the pink puff swallowed the weapon as soon as it had gotten in.  
    One transformation sequence later, he wielded a considerably smaller hammer made of wood. Turning himself quickly, he noticed Dedede had stopped trying to enter through the window. Instead, he was back on the street. The penguin held his hands in such a way that he was gripping onto a hammer that didn't exist.   
    Kirby was confused, but still determined to help the king. He jumped back out of the home, and into the street. White smog had placed itself in Dedede's hands, and as it dissipated, a new hammer (though of the same kind as the last) stood in the smog's wake. Kirby didn't bother to question it.  
    Thusly, a real, fair battle begun. Kirby could finally defend himself and get some hope to win this battle. However, as hammers clashed and met eachothers business ends, Kirby grew less and less confident. Dedede's attacks were incredibly hard hitting, and the shock-waves (small or large) were pushing the pink warrior back every step of the way.  
    The sound of windows shattering from the blasts of force were scaring the Kirby slightly, but not managing to distract him too much. He was focusing on making sure none of the hits connected to him, which as the battle drew on and on, Kirby felt that get harder and harder to make sure of.  
    "Kirby! Hit his face!"  
    Tiff's voice rang out. Where was she? Kirby didn't check, he just followed her instruction. As soon as he got the chance, he aimed for the face. The hit was defended against, but he continued his attempts. He needed to hit the mask. Tiff told him to.  
    He kept going at it. He kept at it until he landed a single blow on the mask. Square in the forehead, too. Dedede stumbled back, dropping his hammer. As it crashed into the ground, it evaporated into the same white smoke it had appeared from. Dedede stood there, like a statue, for less than a second before the mask slid off of his face and onto the ground. It rolled a bit, before rattling to a face-down stop.  
    "Huh? Wuzzat?"  
    Dedede, dazed but mostly confused, aired his rhetorical questions. It confirmed Kirby's suspicions. The mask had changed Dedede for some reason. Kirby narrowed his eyes. He didn't want any maskwear controlling his friends! Before he could smash the mask into the same shape as tinfoil, he was blasted away by a cold gust of wind. His grip still secure on his hammer, Kirby stumbled a bit before falling on his butt.  
    The mask levitated, an ethereal smoke trail behind it as it moved. From the visor, lights in the shape of eyes blinked like they had been awakened for something they were less than enthusiastic for. Narrowed and angry, piercing violet, they looked down on the puff in a gaze akin to one of Yamikage's. Kirby held back a shiver as he recovered himself.  
    "So it is a monster! Kirby, keep aiming for the mask!"  
    Kirby could finally look around to see Tiff, off in the sidelines. Tuff was with her too, obviously. Kirby turned his attention back to the unenthused armor piece. From the smoke, it made itself a body of a lizard. It grew arms, with hands and fingers that were hooked like talons. Really, it looked more like a snake. Except, like, with arms. In its hands, of course, a metal battlehammer.  
    The clouds came together, as if it were hardening, then dispelling. The figure now was of skin, rather than smoke. Adorning the snake-like creature was armor of similar metal to the mask. It lead all the way to the tip of its tail, where a spearhead-like blade now stood to scratch the pavement of the road. The lizard hissed, its hammer impatiently patting against one of its hands.  
    The thing towered over Kirby. It moved its hands to grasp around the hammer's shaft comfortably, and prepared itself to strike. Getting to the mask was going to be decently hard to do with a taller enemy. He could fret about that in a second, right now, he had to protect himself from the lizard's oncoming attacks. So, he ran.  
    However, running seemed like it wouldn't be doing all too much help. Unlike with Dedede, who was cumbersome and much slower because of his weight, the snake could use part of its body to slither up to Kirby at high speeds without breaking a sweat or putting down its weapon. It caught up to Kirby in second, punting him down the road like a soccerball across a field. He could swear he heard Tiff say his name, but he couldn't be sure because of the wind whistling in his ears as he flew.  
    He smacked into the ground, rolled a bit, then before he knew it, the familiar feeling of being smacked by metal greeted him once more. This repeated multiple times, and Kirby didn't really enjoy it too much. Kirby tried to keep his composure during his flight as the serpentine warrior knocked him around like a golfball on a minigolf course.  
    Kirby had managed to suck in some air, stopping his arc towards the ground right in the middle. He hovered upwards, as high as he could go with a heavy weapon still in his hand. The snake, surprised by this action, was moving itself upwards to meet him in the air. Most likely trying to spike him down like a volleyball, it sprung upwards, poised to smash Kirby directly down onto the ground once more.  
    "Kirby! Throw your hammer at it now! Throw it at the mask!"  
    Tiff commanded. With no hesitance, Kirby nodded, and flung his hammer like a boomerang. It connected with a thundering clang, and the serpent stalled right before it could spike the ball. Kirby couldn't keep flying like this forever. In fact, he couldn't keep flying at all anymore. He exhaled loudly, letting all the air out of him. His descent was joined by the mask he had smacked, along with the familiar white smoke.  
    He made it onto the ground first.   
    "Quick, Kirby, get your hammer!"  
    He was sore and beaten, but he stumbled onto his feet once more. Yes, his mallet was just nearby. Oh, there it was. Perfect. He dashed over and retrieved it right as the mask threatened to levitate once more. A dash and a jump towards the mask, he beat it onto the ground. He kept at it, hammering the mask as fumes of white expelled and the metal screeched in agony from the denting.  
    He only stopped when the metal was as flat as a pancake. At that point, it had stopped smoking. It was simply metal, now. Nothing else.  
    "Hah. I get your sleeping spot now."  
    "Ugh."  
    "Hehehee.."  
    "It's only because you shot the hammer out of the guy's hand!"  
    "It made the battle fair."  
    "It was fair how it was."  
    "No it wasn't."  
    The Dark Matters were bickering, Tiff was coming over to make sure Kirby was okay, Dedede was still confused as to what was going on, and Tuff was just chilling out. Well, at least that was over. Kirby discarded his hammer, leaving it to puff away in stars and smoke. Picking up the mask, he wondered what was up with it. How could an entire snake person fit in there?   
    Well, it was too late to ask such a question. Kirby looked to Tiff, who was talking at him. He wasn't paying attention to anything she was saying, just that she was saying stuff. He looked at the mask, then at her. She could go visit Meta Knight, right? He knew about masks. Maybe he could explain why this one had a snake person in it?  
    Kirby waved the mask at Tiff, poyoing his request. She was puzzled, but took the mask anyways. She seemed to figure out what Kirby meant as soon as he donned a pseduo Meta Knight accent and added it into his poyos.  
    "Oh, I should go ask Meta Knight about this! Yeah, it was a pretty strange monster.. He wasn't around to explain it either."  
    Tiff gave a heavy sigh.  
    "I'll go ask him about it later. First, you two!" Tiff pointed up at the Dark Matter, "You were betting on the battle, weren't you! You guys are terrible! You didn't even help Kirby!"  
    The twins rolled their eyes.  
    "He was perfectly fine. If he were in any actual danger, we would've stepped in,"  
    "We wouldn't have heard the end of it from Dark Matter,"  
    "If their precious little pink ball guy got actually injured."  
    Tiff gave a glower, then returned to Kirby again. She looked him over, pat him, then lead him by his hand towards the castle. Tuff followed after. Oh boy, maybe Kirby could go talk to Meta Knight? Or, actually, maybe he could have a nap on that one really comfy couch in the place that Tiff and her family stayed? Kirby could really go for a nap right about now. Battling got really tiring..   
    Kirby looked back over his shoulder, waving goodbye to the Dark Matters as he was dragged by Tiff. As the three moved past Dedede, the penguin stared at Kirby, then looked to who Kirby was waving to. The king went pale, then skedaddled like a madman out of town, back to the sanctity of his home. Kirby and the kids were left eating his dust, but that wasn't really too much of a problem.   
    The slow progress just made it so he could say goodbye to his Dark Matter friends before he could never ever see them again. Ever. 

* * *

  
    Meta Knight felt like a prisoner. A prisoner during war, knowing that dangers lurked just outside where he was being kept. Dangers that could threaten the people he vowed to protect, but his captors refused to let him free. Sword and Blade had said they were doing it for his own good, yes, but as the days and nights wore on and he slowly healed, he was getting more and more restless.  
    The nightmares supplied and heightened his paranoia to levels only matched by the war. The nightmares had switched from giving him flashbacks to giving him horrid visions of possible futures that could be laid out for Kirby. It wasn't fun. No, it wasn't fun at all to be strapped to a bed and forced to rest like this. Especially not when rest meant sleep or just staring up at nothing. Yes, he got company. Yes, he knew he was healing. Yes, he was being checked up on daily by Doctor Dee— the castle's doctor. Yes, Sword and Blade told him everything that happened every single day. Yes, they were doing their jobs properly. Yes, they were listening to every command given. Yet, none of that comforted him.  
    Zero was out there. Zero, in the white flesh, was on Popstar. Zero. **Zero**. If that wasn't enough, there were at the very least three of its wretched void-spawn with it. Stars knows how many more could possibly be lurking around.   
    He struggled against the bindings that laid underneath the pink blanket once again as the bubbling fear fizzled back into his mind. He cursed how good the two were at tying ropes. Or, more specifically, tying up people so they couldn't move. If only they weren't thieves in the past, and something more mediocre. Oh, if only..  
    Just then, a knocking at his door. It opened, and how convenient, he was just thinking about the guy. Sword entered the room, something in his hand. It looked like something of a plate. A very, very misused and worn plate that had gotten much to many bumps and bruises from time. Yet, the metal of this plate still seemed shiny and polished. Very strange.  
    "Eh, there was a monster attack in Cappytown today, another one of his majesty's things. Tiff wanted to ask ya 'bout it. It was wearin' this mask, said it was real ghost-like too."  
    A mask..? As Sword got close to the bed, he realized yes, that plate was a mask. A very squished one, but a mask nonetheless. When its side that would normally faced out towards other was turned to him, however, he recognized it. That was a GSA mask. He racked his brain, silently, as he scanned it. Yes, he had.. He had seen this mask before. On someone he fought alongside of.  
    "What did this 'ghost' monster look like..?"  
    "Said it looked like a snake, but with red arms."  
    Memories suddenly snapped into him. A snake with arms. Hands like talons, scales red and an underbelly of yellow. Armor of dull, damaged grey. He knew this person. He thought for a second, focusing hard. What was their name? What was it?  
    Ah.. Yes. She was one of many who was taken in battle as a prisoner of NME, and never came back as a monster. The GSA soldiers had held her, along with many others, a small memorial before they had to move onto the next destination of battle. Her name was.. Zerda. He couldn't remember anything other than her first name, but he did remember how good she was at smashing in faces with that battlehammer she was.  
    But.. To hear this, that somehow eNeMeE had done this to her, and most likely countless others.. Meta Knight let his eyes burn red, staring daggers into the mask of his fallen sister in arms. It wasn't of hatred for her. It was for the horrid wizard who had somehow managed to grab her soul and sell it as if it were meaningless.  
    But everything was meaningless to him. Why was Meta Knight even surprised that Nightmare would do something so foul and disgusting, to not even let enemy soldiers rest after they had been caught and tortured so eagerly at his hands?  
    "The mask was possessed by a soul that was forced to do monster's work. That should be all she needs to hear."  
    Sword nodded, not prodding further into it. Sword turned to leave.  
    "Leave it here."  
    Not a question, and Sword put the flattened pancake of a 'mask' leaned up against a wall for support. That would be fine for now. With that, Sword left the room, closing the door gently behind him.  
    Meta Knight did not know the lizard personally. He didn't bother making many friends during the war, if any at all. He knew to get attached to more people than he already did was a emotionally exposing move. He couldn't go about giving his attachment to every soldier he fought beside, he surely would've snapped out of sheer grief if he did.  
    But this? Somehow it felt.. Personal. Very, very personal. Extremely personal. It infuriated him. It made malice threaten to dye his eyes red permanently.  
    eNeMeE was getting a talking to tonight, if Meta Knight could help it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Canon oneshot, ['eNeMeE Gets A Talking To'](http://archiveofourown.org/works/11803167), has been published along with this chapter.


	11. Mirror Mirror On The Wall, Who's The Greatest Kirby Of Them All?

   Kirby stared out at the watermelon patch in awe and hunger. Mostly hunger. This patch wasn't just a regular sized one, it was huge. It was so big it covered across the nearby hillsides. Now, Kirby couldn't count past four, but he was definitely sure there were more than four in this patch.   
    Rushing into the privately owned property, he tripped and stumbled over watermelon vines and the smaller, growing melons. He poyoed happily, just being amongst the round green-rind fruits. Yes, this is where he, an unattended toddler, truly felt like he was at home; a place with so much food that he was practically tripping over the pure amounts of it.  
    Finding a good spot, Kirby sat himself down and began to gorge himself on watermelons. He was a maniac. A serial watermelon eater. Destroyer of crops and livelyhood, Kirby was. With no Tiff or Tuff to tell him otherwise, who could possibly stop him? No one. No one could stop the widespread devastation Kirby unleashed. For a mostly water based fruit, this was probably nothing short of the apocalypse.  
    After downing definitely more than four melons whole— without even removing the rind or cracking open the fruit, mind you— Kirby pat his tum and hummed contently. He turned his eyes to the sky, seeing the lighter Dark Matter approaching. He waved to them, smiling as they joined him.  
    "Whatcha doing, Kirby?"  
    They questioned as they got into a decent distance to have a conversation in. Kirby poyoed, pointing at one of the still standing melons that was still sitting around, unsuspecting and delicious. Dark Matter eyed the melon, trying to decipher something.  
    "Oooh, you're eating stuff, right?"  
    Kirby gave a nod and they seemed pretty proud that they got the right conclusion. What else was he supposed to be doing in a field full of food? Look at it? Oh, that might be a bit insensitive to say, considering how all Dark Matter had was an eye..  
    "Poyo, poyo?"  
    He questioned. It was peculiar to him how Dark Matter didn't have a mouth, and they probably didn't have an answer as to why, but it was good to just ask anyways. Dark Matter looked a bit awkward at the question. Well, there goes that.  
    "Soo.. You just eat them whole?"  
    Dark Matter dodged the mouth question, focusing more on the whole melon thing.  
    "That's not very efficient, Kirby. I don't know much on eating actual physical food, but when I eat emotions, having them trickle in to properly save the flavor is better than having it all rush in at once. I bet it's basically the same thing for physical food."  
    Dark Matter turned back towards the watermelon. One of the orange beads from their back dislodged, then flung itself at the melon, smashing it to pieces upon impact. Watermelon gore flew everywhere, the sugary syrup of the insides splattering all over Kirby. Eh, it wasn't really too big of a deal. It did startle him, though. More so than he'd like to admit.  
    "Here, just eat it a piece at a time! You'll like it better because it takes longer to eat."  
    Dark Matter advised. If they had hands they probably would've brought a piece of the obliterated fruit over to Kirby, but they didn't. So, Kirby took it upon himself to stand up, pick up a piece, and eat it. Then another, and another. Maybe they were onto something about this whole 'eat food in pieces' thing.. Key word being maybe.  
    Kirby, upon finding all the pieces of the splattered melon and stuffing them in his face hole, poyoed appreciatively to Dark Matter. The two haven't been out anywhere lately.. How long ago was the last time they did some friend stuff together? Kirby had been spending a lot of time just doing random stuff and hanging out with the twins rather than the singular, lighter alien.  
    "Stars, Kirby, you're just so adorable.."  
    Dark Matter fawned, drawing close and bumping Kirby with their body lightly, as if they were a cat. Kirby poyoed, smiling as he pat them appreciatively. After a second, they pulled away.  
    "That's kinda like the Dark Matter equivalent of a hug."  
    They stated, looking quite happy. Kirby was so overcome with sudden joy that he did a little dance. Hugs were his favorite thing. Aside from food. And friends. And Meta Knight. And Tiff. And Tuff. And a lot of other people.  
    "You wanna go somewhere else?"  
    Kirby nodded. He wouldn't mind going on an adventure or something.

 

* * *

  
    Was he mad? Yes. Absolutely. Dedede was mad. He had been brooding about his failures yesterday all through the night, then into the light of the next day. Today, that is. He had gotten a recap on what happened from those two knight guys, who heard the story from Sir Ebrum's brats. Dedede had attacked Kirby in speeds and power never seen before, and yet, even then, he had still managed to lose the fight against Kirby. It was a step up from his previous failures because of how personal it felt. He was bested, even when there were some ghostly shenanigans or whatever boosting his power.  
    He slouched in his chair, stuffing his face with chips angrily.  
    "What's wrong, your majesty?"  
    Dedede didn't stop his strange way of putting chips in his mouth hole to look at Escargoon.  
    "'S that pink pipsqueak! He clobbered me! And <b>I'm</b> the one who does the clobberin' 'round 'ere!"  
    He, indeed, was the one to cobber that there Kirby. It wasn't the other way around, or upside-down, or sideways, or whatever. That's how things should be. He, with his hammer— or monsters— should clobberin' the pink marshmallow. It wasn't too bad when Kirby was beating up his monsters, but actually going as far to beat up the king himself? Now, now that justified him being frustrated.  
    "Well, he has been training with Meta Knight's little squires. Not to mention The Arena probably gave him a bit of experience with weapons and fighting. Maybe he's getting too-"  
    "No one's too strong to be clobbered by me! 'Specially not Kirbeh!"  
    He yelled, spitting half-eaten chips all over Escargoon's face. The snail dutifully wiped the chip spit off with a grimace, a bit disgusted with the fact that he had to get such food gunk on his hand. The snail flicked the food onto the floor for some janitorial Waddle Dee to clean up.  
    "In times like these, it sounds like you need to look at yourself in the mirror, King D."  
    Wait, what? The sudden intrusion from the guy on the TV wasn't exactly unwelcome, but Dedede was over here wondering how the guy was listening in on the conversation, much less enter it silently. The penguin didn't have the TV up, but now, the flatscreen had been furled from the wall it was hidden in. It normally made a bunch of noise, too.. Dedede stopped eating his chips. Needed to look somewhat professional.  
    "How'd you mean? I'm lookin' at myself in the mirror every day and I'm still strong and handsome!"  
    And he was very, very humble too. Not to mention he never did anything wrong in his life, ever. Really, his perfect existence was ultimately one of its flaws. It was lonely being the only perfect being to ever grace the planet. Heck, the only perfect being to ever be made, like, ever.  
    "The only solution to getting rid of your Kirby problem is to have him fight someone with equal skill and ability as him. And we have just the thing," the tv man pulled out a hand-held mirror, "that may be able to do just that."  
    "How is a haircutter's mirror going to help with Kirby? What'll it do, make Kirby afraid of his own reflection or something?"  
    Some extra sass from Escargoon, but Dedede was wondering the same exact thing. TV guy laughed a tad before continuing on with his pitch.  
    "This is no ordinary mirror. Stare into it long enough, and an exact copy with a thirst to obliterate whatever it's commanded to will pop out. The exact same powers and abilities. Perfect, exact copies. It even has the capabilities for multiple copies at a time."  
    Oh, that did sound promising. But, then..   
    "I would still have to deal with a Kirbeh runnin' around! Ain't matter who wins if that's the case!"  
    Another laugh.  
    "Destroy the mirror itself and the replica is destroyed. Simple as that."  
    Dedede was considering it. He wasn't in debt thanks to the mask business, he could afford to do something like this. He could afford it regardless, he could just go back into debt again if he was really desperate to have the thing.  
    "So all I gotta do is hold it up to Kirbeh and a brand new one that'll do whatever I say'll pop out?"  
    "Correcto-mundo, D."  
    A toothy smile graced the king's face. He could get rid of Kirby, replace him with a new one who did his bidding.. Or just get rid of the pink menace entirely! Perfect!   
    "Send it over!"  
    With that, the tv was off, the transporter appeared, and the same mirror the man on the television had held was on the hardened glass of the teleportation machine. The penguin jumped to his feet, rushing over to the mirror. However, his snail assistant was faster to grab the little thing than he was.  
    "Sire, before we go putting this infront of Kirby, I have an idea."  
    Dedede didn't typically like it when Escargoon upstaged him, but the assistant had a wicked look in his eyes. He'd allow it.  
    "Oh yeah, what's that?"  
    Escargoon made a silent motion for the penguin to follow. Chipper, Dedede did just so. Escargoon was walking through the castle halls to the destination, but when Dedede took the lead (despite not knowing where they were going), the snail was forced to run to catch up to him. He'd stop whenever he came to a crossroad.  
    Upon reaching where they were meant to be, Dedede had overshot the destination and had to be called back by Escargoon to the wooden door the snail stood infront of.  
    "That slacker Meta Knight hasn't even been out of his room this week. I say we get him up and working."  
    Escargoon remarked with a grin. It took a second for Dedede to get what Escargoon was trying to imply here. With that, the snail opened the door to the pitch black bedroom.  
    "He's even more lazy than you, sire!"  
    Escargoon scoffed before entering the conveniently unlocked room. Dedede hadn't seen this room before, he wasn't ever one to go check on his staff, much less Meta Knight. He'd barge into any room he pleased, but he didn't desire to go rushing into this one. Meta Knight would probably just look at him coldly or say some stuff the penguin didn't understand in his weird accent.  
    Escargoon didn't dare to turn on the light in the room, just letting some from the hallway seep in was enough to see that the blue knight was still fast asleep. At, like, three in the afternoon. Dedede got up at one in the afternoon, and he slept for around fifteen hours. So really, just sleeping for this long was the epitome of laziness in Dedede's eyes.  
    The snail slithered up to the knight, holding the mirror directly over the slightly twitching blue puff. Oh, this should be good.. Dedede rubbed his hands together like he were one of those supervillains he had seen on one of his many television shows.  
    The mirror's frame bubbled and oozed, the glass turning black before it sparked green. Escargoon took this as a sign to take the mirror away from the knight's face and point it out towards the less occupied part of the room. From the blackness, something oozed slowly out of the mirror. It was akin to a slug in shape, and plopped onto the floor, removing its blackness from the reflective part of the handheld, most likely magical, cosmetic device.  
    The slug bubbled and stretched disgustingly, making no sound. It contorted and grew, twisting and making itself into something more than just a blob on the floor. It had taken shape, and just like that, the blackness dissolved from its new body. There, stood Meta Knight. Fully armored and wrapped up in cape as usual, too. The copy looked around the room before finding a sword it deemed worthy to wield. It wasn't that gold one that the regular Meta Knight usually was seen using, rather, just a plain old sword.  
    With that, it turned to Escargoon, waiting. He wasn't about to talk, though. He pushed the new Meta Knight out of the room, out into the hallway. The snail shut the door behind them, and now the three stood fully in the light.   
    "Can ya talk?"  
    Dedede was just curious.  
    "Yes."  
    The new Meta Knight had the accent down to a T. It really was a perfect copy.  
    "Right, listen here, Meta Knight."  
    It stared intently at Escargoon, awaiting its orders. Man, it was nice to actually have Meta Knight on their side for once. Not off secretly helping Kirby or defusing plans or anything. This Meta Knight was sure to get the job done.  
    "We want you to go out and get rid of Kirby with that sword of yours. You got that?"  
    Meta Knight stood still for a second, nodded, then ran off. Must be some sorta Kirby tracking intuition. Well, whatever it was, Meta Knight was bounding off. Dedede snatched the mirror from the snail, chasing after the knight. He wanted to see the fight for himself. It was personal now.

 

* * *

  
    "I'll just sit here and watch."  
    Dark Matter did, indeed, sit down and watch. Kirby guessed they weren't too much of a swimmer for whatever reason. So, as Kirby splished and splashed in the calm chest-high (on Kirby) river, they sat a foot or two away from the river's shore. They were really out of the splash zone. Very smart.  
    Kirby did want them to join him in the water, but he guessed if they didn't want to, they didn't have to. Kirby could have plenty of fun just splashing about by himself! In fact, he could even pick up some rocks for his house while he was here! A little collection he could take home from the river. Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah, rocks. Rocks.  
    Dipping his little stub into the water, he fished out a particularly nice looking spotted, kinda vaugely heart shaped rock. With his other stub, he grabbed another rock which he thought felt nice. It was very nice and round, though cracked in some places. He moved to the shore, placed the two rocks down, then waded back into the soft current of the river.  
    He continued this many, many times until he had a nice little pile of rocks he planned to take home. Dark Matter eyed them.  
    "What're the rocks for?"  
    They questioned as Kirby scanned below him for more interesting rocks. Kirby had a little interest in cool looking rocks on the side. Who was to say that he didn't have little hobbies, huh?  
    "Poyhome."  
    He answered, simply. Pulling out a cute little pebble, he figured that'd be enough rocks for now. He couldn't even bring all the rocks he selected home. He'd have to put them through trials to pick which few he liked the very, very best. Sitting down on the shoreline, he took apart his pile so he could look at every single rock he'd picked out.  
    "Your house?"  
    Kirby nodded. They let out a little hum, thinking. Kirby could tell they were looking at his special selection of rocks. Only the best of the best rocks could pass his test and earn a placement on his home's windowsill. Kirby poyoed to himself as his eyes passed over the rocks, quickly sorting out the first couple of them.  
    "You just.. Take rocks home?"  
    Another nod.  
    "Why?"  
    "Poyo, poyo poyo.. Poyo poyo poyo."  
    "..Okay."  
    The rocks that got sorted out where tossed back into the river carelessly. Some other lucky child could have those. Now, Kirby had cut it down to about four rocks. He'd only be able to take two home, since that's how many arms he had. He looked to Dark Matter for help.  
    "Oh, you need help choosing? I like the green one."  
    Ah, yes, the green one.. Well, since Dark Matter liked it, he had to keep it now. He picked it up and placed it right next to him. After a second or two, he picked up the very first rock he had fished out of the river, the vaguely heart shaped one, and put it next to him. The other remaining rocks rejoined the riverbed. With a big smile on his face, Kirby rushed over to Dark Matter, rocks in hands.  
    "Poyhome! Poyhome!"  
    He jumped onto their head, expecting a ride. Thankfully, they were more than happy to give it to him. Before the two could depart, however, something knocked Kirby directly off of the back of his friend. This force sliced directly into Kirby, making him lose his grip on his rocks, and sent him and his little stones tumbling into the river a couple feet away.  
    The slash had knocked Kirby into the same shallow water, so it wasn't too bad. Kirby did feel his backside sting with some weird tingling, burning sensation. Being back in the water didn't help with this. Getting up, Kirby moved himself quickly away from a beam of light which cut itself through the ground, sand, and water towards him.  
    A look past the shoreline and bed allowed him to see Meta Knight, dashing towards him. In the distance, someone else chased right after. Kirby poyoed, warning Dark Matter of Meta Knight. He didn't want his friends to fight, but when Kirby saw their highly constricted pupil and wide, rage-filled eye once more.. He knew there'd be some very quickly.   
    Dark Matter swung around, and electricity crackled and released loudly. Oh yeah, this wouldn't be good. Kirby scrambled to the shore, seeing Meta Knight dodging each bolt of lightning Dark Matter spawned. Except one. That one, fatal bolt sealed the knight's fate, as it had stopped him right on the spot. Dark Matter hissed loudly, fuming.  
    "You are despicable!! You dare attack him because he's friends with me, you monster!?"  
    They screeched in the Knight's face, getting closer and closer to him as they concentrated their black bolts on his position. It was like the first encounter all over again. Kirby didn't know why Meta Knight had attacked him, he wasn't about to question why, but he was about to try and get this situation down a notch or four. He didn't want Meta Knight even more injured.  
    "Poyno!"  
    He cried, managing to get over to the floating orb and shove them a little bit. They, indeed, stopped. But, as soon as they did, Meta Knight was back in action. Unnaturally fast, Kirby received a slice from Meta Knight's blade. The pink puff gave a howl of pain, though his skin showed no breakage or injury. It still hurt. With that cry of pain, Dark Matter had decided they had enough.  
    From their back, a singular bead dislodged and levitated itself. With such force that Kirby heard the wind rip, the bead hurled itself at Meta Knight with speed paralleled (or maybe exceeded) by when they had done it earlier today. Just like earlier today, it yielded the exact same result.   
    Meta Knight's body exploded and became nothing but gore and pieces. Not of red or of anything one would expect of such a thing, but of sludge. Pure black, it splattered everywhere. Meta Knight's armor, the cape, the mask, everything became sludge upon impact. It stained the grass, it went skywards, but it mostly coated the bead that had been used to absolutely obliterated him.  
    Kirby was. Well, he was absolutely speechless. He couldn't process what just happened. So, he stood, dumbstruck. The only thing that snapped him out of his stance of shock was the fact that he saw the sludge move. Like, actually, move and congregate. It got into a sluggish goo pile, then just sat there. Kirby reasoned with himself.  
    That wasn't Meta Knight that had just been turned into a goo pile.  
    His deduction was only strengthened when the person who had been running in the distance, came closer. King Dedede, now severely out of breath, wheezed and huffed.  
    "I missed all it!? You gotta be kiddin'!"  
    He was breathless and quiet. His words were telling enough, but it was really sold when the black goop moved its way over to him, then launched itself into the strange object he held. Dedede muttered some strange words to himself that Kirby didn't quite make out.  
    "Hey."  
    Dark Matter spoke up. Kirby recognized that tone. They had used it when talking to Tiff.  
    "Listen, fattie. You're just about on my last nerve. You send that sawblade monster after Kirby, now this..? Do you not realize just how dangerous what you're doing here is?"  
    They growled yet, somehow, Dedede had remained composed with a big smile on his face. In fact, it almost seemed like he had expected for this to happen.  
    "Looksee here, I was just hopin' to give my ol' pal Kirbeh here a gift, see?"  
    Dedede shoved the object he was previously holding (which the sludge had disappeared within) into Kirby's face. A gift, huh? Well, Kirby saw absolutely no problem with this! A gift from his pal King Dedede! He looked at the gift, seeing himself in some sort of reflection. Wow! It was like a portable thing of water, but minus the water part.  
    "S' a mirror, Kirbeh. Like it?"  
    Kirby nodded, staring into his own reflection. He made a goofy face, completely forgetting about the previous events that had befallen him even though his back still stung. Kirby didn't see it, but Dedede had a huge grin and a smug expression, even going so far as to turn that expression towards Dark Matter. Kirby only looked up from the mirror when he heard a 'OOF'.   
    He saw Dedede was now on the ground, with a bead squishing in his face the same way a fist would. He was currently trying to remove it, but somehow, the bead refused to come off. Dark Matter seemed proud of themselves until Kirby shot them a disapproving look. Which, naturally, they withdrew the bead and secured it to their body.  
    Kirby went back to looking into the mirror. It was pretty funny, he could make all the faces he wanted! He really liked the gift, so he wanted to play with it some infront of the person who gave it to him just to show his appreciation.  
    Before he could dance from the gift, however, something strange happened. The surface that showed Kirby's face clogged up with black, and the rim of the mirror sparked. Dedede dropped it as soon as one spark managed to zap him. Why did the gift do that? He looked to Dedede, who had gone and hid behind a bush in such a way that one obviously knew he was there. He had dropped the mirror on the ground.  
    The blackness congregated, becoming sludge and taking form. It became round, and when the black became pink, Kirby could hear Dark Matter gasp slightly. Infront of Kirby was a brand new Kirby, probably made out of the same material as Meta Knight.  
    Kirby gave his clone the benefit of the doubt, tapping them on the face. The other Kirby didn't even poyo.  
    "Get em, Kirbeh!"  
    Dedede shouted like some sort of fitness trainer. The clone took action immediately, grabbing Kirby's arms, twisting him around and slamming him onto the ground so hard that Kirby was seeing apples that didn't exist. Before he knew it, he was kicked into the river once more. The rocks he had rejected scraped against his soft, pink marshmallow face.  
    The copy launched itself at Kirby, foot landing squarely on his back in such a way that it made him skim further against the rocks.  
    Kirby was unconcerned about how injured his face got. He was more concerned about the fact that his face was totally underwater at the moment. The clone saw this, and was holding him under. He flailed, madly. He could go for a while without air, but in a state of panic and pain, he had gasped out most of his air into the current.  
    Kirby was not without air in a second, though. His copy had been forced off of him and further down the river by Dark Matter's orange ball. Kirby gasped and choked as he guided the water out of his system. He struggled to get out of the water, when, before he knew it, he was being held under the water by his clone once more.  
    The process of Dark Matter launching the clone, Kirby getting up out of the water, then the clone getting back to work in putting Kirby under repeated multiple times. Less than four. When he had gotten to the shoreline, the replication had tried to drag him back in by his feet. Another smack from the bead ripped Kirby's not-so-nice copy stubs off the original's body.  
    That's when Kirby got an idea. This was just another mask situation. Except no possession this time.  Plucking a random rock from the shore, he dashed over to the object the second Kirby had come out of.  
    As he got close, the second Kirby pounced onto him, punching to the best of its ability. The two tussled and rolled, kicking and fighting eachother with equal strength. When Kirby would reach for the mirror, his stub would be slapped or kicked by the other. Both him and the other gave cries of pain that sounded exactly the same.  
    Yes, it was a battle of wrestling, one which Dark Matter couldn't even halt. They were stuck staring at it, now thoroughly confused onto which Kirby was which. Even then, considering how they had not gotten rid of the other Kirby in the first place with a powerful strike, Kirby didn't think they wanted to hurt either him or his replication.  
    He kicked his copy in the face, grabbing the object haphazardly. With that simple movement, Dark Matter smacked the copy off of him once more. Kirby had managed to keep his rock in his hand whilst fighting, so with a simple movement, he brought the rock to the reflective surface of the gift. A loud crack from the object and screeching from it had followed suit in making itself known. Kirby brought the rock down again.  
    Glass shattered, Kirby dropped his weapon. His clone halted in place. Dissolving and fizzing loudly, it became black once more. It disappeared downwards, melting into the ground, leaving no residue behind. Just like that, the battle was won. That was significantly easier than the whole mask deal. Dark Matter 'hugged' Kirby as soon as it was over, a little bit emotional. Yeah, he felt the same way.. Seeing Meta Knight fight him then become black goop made him emotional too.  
    He hugged back, and only when Dedede's bush rustled did it break.  
    "Oh no, don't think you're getting out of this without some damage, mister!"  
    Dark Matter flew after the now fastly retreating king. Zapping and shooting the ground right behind him either to scare him or out of shoddy aim, Dark Matter did a great job of chasing him away.  
    Kirby looked down at the rock he held. Well, he was keeping this one for sure. Turning back to the river, he moved out to go find the rock Dark Matter said they liked. It would probably take a little bit to find it, but he still wanted to keep that one too. It was basically a little token of their friendship. One that he could keep on the sill and it'll look nice.  
    After minutes and minutes of searching, he managed to find it once more. Once he was back onshore and after checking to make sure some random monster didn't pop up and hit him out of nowhere, Kirby did a little happy dance. Dark Matter was just returning from chasing Dedede into the horizon, so it played out perfectly.  
    "Poyhome!"  
    He crawled up onto their head again. No fake Meta Knights to slash him off with magic beams now, hopefully. Dark Matter chuckled, and the two flew off towards Kirby's house. The little puff hurt all over, but he managed to forget about his pain as the two soared back to the home on the hill. He also managed to block out the images of Meta Knight being exploded. 


	12. Meta Knight's Big Fright

    Meta Knight awoke with some startle, sitting up in bed and panting. He wasn't quite sure what he was so scared about, considering his generally uneventful sleep.. He hadn't been visited tonight by the nightmare wizard, which was.. Strange. As much as he preferred it that way, he certainly couldn't help but feel like something was off considering the villain's absence.  
    Something else was also off. Specifically, the ropes that held the knight down to his bed. He was all sat up, showing off how not tied down he was. Something.. Perhaps Sword and Blade undid them whilst he slept, thinking he was fine to finally get up?   
    The blue orb of edge severely doubted that was the case. Just yesterday the two were telling him how much rest he needed, now he was over here assuming they came to their senses and let him out so soon. This was very, very suspicious. One could see how suspicious it was to him by his squint. Er.. Maybe that was just him trying to peer through the darkness of his room better. Or both.  
    He got up from bed, stumbling a little bit as he felt a bit off-balance from the lack of exercise. He steadied himself using the bedpost, feeling the world spin a little bit. Meta Knight was just going to blame the dizziness on his concussion. It was probably a symptom. He hoped, anyways.  
    As soon as he felt a bit better, he staggered over to Galaxia and its sheath, equipping it as he did usually. He felt a bit on edge, so Galaxia would help to calm him down. Plus, it would be strange to not walk around with the sword by his side. Sort of a habit to keep it on his person at all times.  
    With that, he left the darkness of his room to the dimly lit corridor of the castle. Looking to the torch lamps, none of them appeared to be lit. Rather, the light seemed to be coming from elsewhere, like another hallway.  
    "Strange.."  
    Yes, very, very strange. Three bad signs already. No wizard, the ropes being undone, and now an unusually lit hallway. If only one of these things had happened he would've chalked it up to being an accident, but this was too glaringly obvious to be any sort of accident or coincidence. There was clearly something wrong and the universe was practically screaming it at him.  
    Meta Knight's eyes, turning green and narrowed, turned their attention towards the light's source.  
    Against his better judgement and following his curiosity, he turned to go towards this light. Sure enough, it was.. Well, it was just the torch light of the hall. Nothing unusual. Nope, nothing unusual at all.  
    "Perhaps the Waddle Dees have forgotten to light those torches tonight."  
    He reasoned aloud.  
    "..Where are the Waddle Dees..?"  
    He continued on, looking further down the hall to see no one, then peering back at the one he previous came from to have the same result. Not a single Waddle Dee in sight. Even during the evening hours like tonight, at least a couple could be found.. Sure, they'd be sleeping on the job, but they'd still be nearby.  
    Yet, here he was. In a series of hallways with no Waddle Dees. Add that the 'suspicious things' he'd seen so far. Jeez, he'd only been up for like, two minutes and all this stuff was happening.  
    See, now, Meta Knight's not one to jump to conclusions, but this is all definitely a Dark Matter's fault. He doesn't know how to prove it yet, but it most certainly is one of those guy's faults. That or Zero's. They were the current evil entities in town so they basically had to be behind this set of unusual circumstances.  
    Meta Knight, suddenly paranoid, rushed through the castle halls to find any sign of life. He ran, oh boy he sure did, though halls which he was sure he'd never ever seen or walked through before. His cape fluttered behind him as he ran.  
    "Sword! Blade!"  
    He called out, in hopes they'd be nearby. No doubt they'd put him back in bed, but he could at least do with their company to assure him that things were fine. Which, uh, he was sorta freaking out right now? He could do with some reassurance. Even if it probably and totally would not work and he'd just be dragged back to bed kicking and screaming.  
    At the end of his running, he found no one. He ran to the kitchens to find them empty. From those minutes and minutes of running around, by his arrival at the kitchen, Meta Knight had calmed himself. If he was going to go about things, he was going to have to do it logically and not freak out. Nothing was exactly wrong. Nothing proved itself to be wrong, except for the suspicious lack of Waddle Dees.  
    It's only now that Meta Knight found out that his heart was beating so loudly that he could hear it in his ears. He'd really stirred himself up over nothing.. Over a whole bunch of nothing. Nothing was wrong. He just needed to calm down-  
    "G-GET AWAY FROM ME YA FREAKY THING!"  
    Dedede.   
    Now is not the time to calm down. Now's the time to run out of the kitchen and to wherever the king had yelled from. Thank goodness he had the hearing of a bat. Meta ran and ran, all the way to the throne-room, in where he kicked the door in all dramatic-like. The long room was lit up as regularly as normal, but there was an extra lightsource now.  
    That light was from Dedede, who produced flames of purple that didn't seem to burn his clothes or the ground he stood on. Dedede lumbered strangely, swaying a tad as he looked towards the knight. Eyes cast over with impossibly dark shadows, Dedede drew his wooden hammer from seemingly out of nowhere, a sinister smile on his face.  
    Meta Knight got Galaxia out nearly immediately.  
    "Oh goodie, mistah— excuse me, the accent's still here— mister matter murderer is here. I was hoping you'd show up so I can squash you like the rotten blueberry you are!"  
    A familiar insult, but Meta didn't have much time to focus with the possessed king float-rushing him. A sidestep proved to get out of the way of the tackle, but it didn't take him so far out of the hitting range of the king's mallet. With an impossibly fast swing of the wood weapon, Meta Knight was sent into a wall faster than he could say 'whoops'.  
    The crack of bone and the clatter of metal, he flopped down onto the throneroom's flooring, feeling all his strength suddenly drain from him. Galaxia had been ripped from his hands in the hit, landing a foot or so away from him.   
    Meta Knight wheezed and struggled, putting his hands to the floor to try and prop himself back up to keep fighting. He needs to fight, he can't just give up, this is serious! Dedede, everyone, everyone's in trouble and they're relying on him..  
    "Who would've thought it'd only take one hit from this guy's dumb toy hammer to get you on the ground? You took, what, a bazillion thunderbolts from me and my friends and now you're out here getting knocked out by anything that hits you?"  
    The dark king taunted as he loomed over the blue edgelord. Meta Knight sputtered a bit, arms shaking as he looked for a retort. No, he didn't need to sass back, this is not a time for sassing, this is a time for fighting. Meta goes and lunges for his sword, only to be rewarded with a swing from the hammer, knocking him further into the throneroom; away from Galaxia.  
    Meta Knight tumbles as he hits the floor harshly, rolling before coming to a stop like a ragdoll. He feels strangely.. Dizzy as he lays there.  
    "After I get rid of you, we're going to control everything, everyone.. No one will be able to stop us! We'll feast for eternity from your cute little friends and their miseries!"  
    Meta Knight grunted and groaned in defense as he fought to get up. He could hear the false king's footsteps coming nearer and nearer. A simple turn of his head, and yes, the penguin was approaching with that horrible grin on his face.  
    "We can finally live in peace.. At the cost of yours!"  
    Meta Knight's eyes burned red at that, hardening his hatred for these foul monstrosities. How dare it. How dare it laugh as well, laughing in Dedede's stolen voice. Meta Knight, fueled by malice, managed to get himself up once more, much to the bemusement of his attacker.   
    An attempt to side-dash past the king was made, but, of course, it failed with another painful smack from the hammer and a hearty chuckle from it's wielder. This time, Meta Knight could practically feel the stars around his head. His vision was blurry, and man did he have a massive headache. He couldn't give up, though, he couldn't afford to-  
    "Poyo! Poyo, poyo!"  
    Kirby. Oh no. Not only could he hear the tot, but he could see the pink boy just in the entrance-way. Y'know what else Meta Knight could see? The possessed king turning and at the announced presence.  
    "K-Kirby-"  
    "Oh heyo, it's my pal Kirby!"  
    Talking in the king's voice again, the Dark Matter moved from the now incredibly smacked up knight to go walk towards Kirby. Trying to focus his eyes, Meta Knight still persisted in trying to get up. Even if he couldn't move much, he needed to still get up. To distract the Dark Matter whilst Kirby went and grabbed the golden sword.  
    "Get Galaxia..!"  
    Meta Knight croaked, hoping the puff would hear. His hopes came to fruition as Kirby nodded, dashing for the sword. As soon as Kirby could get close, he got the same exact treatment as Meta Knight did. This time it seemed a bit more rough. Less playful and more.. Deadly.  
    All he could do was watch. It was like something out of a horror movie; the inability to do anything to help Kirby. To defend him against a creature he was clearly outmatched by on his own. A Dark Matter with a body.. Going up against something like that without any weapon or battle training was a sure ticket to the afterlife. That ticket, Kirby's ticket, was attempting to be punched as of this moment.  
    Meta Knight still struggled, but his body didn't listen to him. He was clearly in no position to fight anymore, he'd already been ever-so-easily defeated. The pained cries of the pink child, however, drove him to push against his weakness still. Even if it was entirely futile. Then, Kirby's cries stopped. They stopped with a loud 'slam' of hammer on stone. A light.. Squelch noise replaced Kirby's normal noise.  
    Meta Knight looked at something only nightmares would permit.  
    "No..!"  
    He muttered, eyes growing wide and somewhat darkening in their yellow. Then, instantly, they flashed to a defiant red. He pushed, he pushed against his body's screams to stay down. He needed to get to Galaxia, to slay this thing, slay it and its siblings, to rid the world of such a horrid abomination before it had the chance to do this again!  
    For the now late Kirby.  
    Meta Knight squabbled and basically crawled across the room. He didn't even get a quarter of the way through before the penguin blocked his vengeful path. It was stalled with a simple foot onto the top of Meta Knight's back, pressing down on the armor and concealing cape harshly.   
    "I can't say it's been a pleasure. Sweet dreams, you blasted knight!"  
    The hammer went up, then came down. Again and again and again, the pain of being smashed into oblivion coursed through his slowly slipping consciousness. It went from him being able to feel every single bit to slowly, slowly being unable to feel anything whatsoever.  
    His consciousness fades, and everything goes black. Like he's asleep.. Then he hears a familiar, ear-scraping laugh.   
    Meta Knight's back in his bed, covered in ropes that bound him tightly to his mattress. He squirmed, gasping like he'd been drowning, kicking against the tight knots that kept him down. He could feel his heart in his ears.  
    "A dream..!?"  
    He gasped out, looking around frantically. Oh, for.. For the Star's sake! Meta Knight really should've seen a nightmare like that coming from the blasted wizard. Guess it's the lack of an actual chat before the dream that threw Meta Knight off.. Terrible.   
    "Eh, soroight, you 'aight in 'ere?"  
    Blade asked from the doorway, which, uh, apparently he'd entered. Meta Knight might've been too busy freaking out to notice the door opening. Blade does seem pretty concerned, walking over to Meta Knight's bed with a tray of the usual breakfast platter.  
    Like nothing's even wrong.  
    "..Yes," Meta Knight lied, "just trying to get up out of bed."


End file.
